Pietro Zeno

Pietro Zeno (d. 1427), was sovereign lord of Andros and Syros from 1384 until his death in 1427, and a distinguished diplomat in the service of the Republic of Venice.

Pietro Zeno was the son of the Venetian bailo at Negroponte, also named Pietro Zeno. In early 1384 he married Petronilla Crispo, daughter of Francesco I Crispo, tenth Duke of the Archipelago, as part of the latter's attempt to secure Venetian recognition of his usurpation of the ducal throne after murdering his predecessor, Nicholas III dalle Carceri. As his wife's dowry, Pietro received the islands of Andros and Syros.

Zeno was a very able diplomat; the historian of Frankish Greece William Miller calls him "a diplomatist of unrivalled experience in the tortuous politics of the Levant" and "the most useful diplomatist of the age". As a result, the Venetians employed him in several difficult and delicate negotiations. He played a role in the negotiations that saw the return of Argos to the Republic of Venice after its occupation by the Byzantine Despot of the Morea, Theodore I Palaiologos. In the aftermath of the Battle of Ankara in 1402 he was sent to the Ottoman court to seek Ottoman support against the Florentine adventurer Antonio I Acciaioli, who had recently captured Athens from Venice. Playing on Ottoman fears of a concerted Christian campaign against them in the aftermath of Ankara, he managed to extract a number of concessions from Süleyman Çelebi in the Treaty of Gallipoli, concluded in January or early February 1403: Venice was granted a strip of territory on the Greek mainland opposite the whole length of the island of Euboea, which was a Venetian possession; the Northern Sporades were ceded to the Byzantines; the transfer of the County of Salona to the Knights Hospitaller was ratified; the tribute levied on the Marquisate of Bodonitsa was not raised; and finally the Sultan promised to restore Athens to Venice. In the event, the latter promise remained a dead letter, and Venice was forced to recognize Acciaioli rule over Athens a few years later. In 1404, Zeno visited England to seek the aid of Henry IV of England, but without any tangible success.

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