Despotate of Morea (Byzantine Empire)

This article is about the specific polity Despotate of Morea (Byzantine Empire) and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.

If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics

Was a province of the Byzantine Empire with large autonomy (due the fact that the Byzantine Empire was in decline). It continued to exist as a fully independent polity after the end of the Byzantine Empire but was conquered by the Ottomans in 1460.

Establishment

January 1263: After Michael recaptured Constantinople in 1261, William was released in 1262 in return for Mistra and much of Laconia, which became a Byzantine province.

Chronology

Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation

1. Conquests of Michael VIII

Expansion during the rule of Michael VIII in the Byzantine Empire.

2. Conquests of Charles I Tocco

Expansion during the rule of Charles I Tocco in the County Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos.

January 1409: In 1407-1408, Leonardo III Tocco, the ruler of the County Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, seized and plundered the fortress of Glarentza in the northwestern Morea. Glarentza was a strategic stronghold in the region, and its capture was a significant event in the power struggles of the time.

3. Conquests of Murad II

Expansion during the rule of Murad II in the Ottoman Sultanate.

January 1422: The Ottomans conquered parts of Albania.

4. Wars of Mehmed II

Wars during the rule of Mehmed II in the Ottoman Sultanate.

4.1.Fall of Constantinople

Was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege which had begun on 6 April. The conquest of Constantinople and the fall of the Byzantine Empire marked the effective end of the last remains of the Roman Empire.

May 1453: Mehmed II "the Conqueror" captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 1453. This marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. Sultan Mehmed II made Constantinople his capital, renaming it Istanbul

5. Further events (Unrelated to Any War)

January 1389: Argos, Kiveri and Thermisi were seized by the Despot Theodore I Palaiologos.

January 1389: Nerio I Acciaioli was a Florentine nobleman and ruler of the Duchy of Athens. In 1388, he seized Nauplia, a strategic port city in the Peloponnese.

January 1390: The Republic of Venice conquers the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia.

June 1394: Argos, Kiveri and Thermisi remained in Theodore of Morea's hands until 11 June 1394, when he ceded them to Venice.

January 1403: Salona fell for a short time into the hands of the Despotate of the Morea c. 1402.

January 1405: The Despot Theodore I Palaiologos sold Salona to the Knights Hospitaller in 1404.

January 1409: The Despotate of Morea conquers Glarentza (1408).

January 1418: In 1417, the imperial army of Constantinople, led by the despot Theodore II Palaeologus and Emperor John VIII, invaded Achaea. They took Messenia and Elis.

January 1418: Pylos (Navarino) was a Venetian colony from 1417.

January 1420: Patras is acquired by the Despotate of Morea.

January 1428: In 1427 the Byzantine emperor, John VIII Palaiologos led a campaign against Glarentza, and in the Battle of the Echinades, the Byzantine fleet defeated Tocco's own. This ended Tocco's ability to intervene in the Morea, and his possessions were liquidated in a negotiated settlement, in which John VIII's brother Constantine Palaiologos (later last Byzantine emperor as Constantine XI) married Maddalena Tocco, Carlo's niece, and received Glarentza and the other Tocco territories as her dowry.

January 1433: In 1429, Thomas Palaeologus of Morea besieged Centurione in Chalandritsa and extracted a treaty from him whereby his daughter, Catherine, would marry the despot and thus make him Centurione's heir in Achaea. He died there two years later. His domains passed to the despotate of Morea and into Byzantine hands.