Lordship of Salona

Vassal lordship (after 1318 County) of the Duchy of Athens

1205–1210
1212–1394
1404–1410

Capital

Salona (La Sole)

Government

Feudal principality

Lord (after 1318, Count)

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1205–1210

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1318–1338

Historical era

Middle Ages

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Frankish conquest

1205

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Ottoman conquest

1410

The Lordship of Salona, after 1318 the County of Salona, was a Crusader state established after the Fourth Crusade (1204) in Central Greece, around the town of Salona (modern Amfissa, known in French as La Sole and Italian as La Sola).

The first lord of Salona, Thomas I d'Autremencourt (or de Stromoncourt), was named by Boniface of Montferrat, the King of Thessalonica, in 1205. After the fall of the Thessalonica to the forces of Epirus, and a short-lived Epirote occupation in c. 1210–1212, Salona became a vassal of the Principality of Achaea, but later came under increasing dependency from the Duchy of Athens. In 1318, the lordship came under the rule of the Catalan Fadrique family, the leader of the Catalan Company, who claimed the title of Count of Salona. Among the eighteen Catalan vassals of the area in 1380-1 the Count of Salona ranks first above Count Demitre and the Margrave of Bodonitsa. Due to the unpopularity of the Dowager Countess Helena Asanina Kantakouzene, in 1394, the town opened its gates to the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. It fell for a short time into the hands of the Despotate of the Morea c. 1402. The Despot Theodore I Palaiologos sold Salona to the Knights Hospitaller in 1404, but it fell again to the Ottomans in 1410.