Historical Review

THE ENGLISH Downloaded from HISTORICAL REVIEW http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ NO. LXX.—APRIL 1903 The Ionian Islands under Venetian Rule at Carleton University on July 20, 2015 N their way from Venice to Constantinople the soldiers of the O fourth crusade cast anchor at Corfu, which had lately been recovered from the Genoese pirate Vetrano by the Byzantine government, and was at that time, in the language of the chronicler Villehardouin, ' very rich and plenteous.' In the deed of partition the Ionian islands were assigned to the Venetians; but they did not find Corfu by any means an easy conquest. The natives, com- bining with their old master, Vetrano, ousted the Venetian garrison, and it was not till he had been defeated in a naval battle and hanged with a number of his Corfiote supporters that the Eepublic was able to occupy the island. Even then the Venetian government, finding it impossible to administer directly all the vast territories which had suddenly come into its possession, granted the island in fiefs to ten Venetian citizens on condition that they should garrison it and should pay an annual rent to the Bepublic. The rights of the Greek church were to be respected, and the taxes of the loyal islanders were not to be raised.1 But this first Venetian domination of Corfu was of brief duration. When Michael I Angelos founded the despotat of Epiros the attraction of a neighbouring Greek state proved too much for the Corfiotes, who threw off the Latin yoke and willingly became his subjects. A memorial of his rule may still be seen in the splendidly situated castle of Sant' Angelo, whose ruins rise high above the waters of the Ionian Sea not far from the beautiful monastery of Palaiokastrizza.1 1 Mnatoiidi, Dellt Cost Corcirtsi, pp. 399 nnd vl. • Ibid. p. 401. VOL. XVin.—KO. LXX. P 210 THE IONIAN ISLANDS April Corfu prospered greatly under the despots of Epiros. They took good care to ratify and extend the privileges of the church, to grant exemptions from taxation to the priests, and to reduce the burdens of the laity to the smallest possible figure. In this they showed their wisdom, for the church became their warmest ally, and a Corfiote divine was one of the most vigorous advocates of his patron in the ecclesiastical and political feud between the rival Greek empires of Nice and Salonika. But after little more than half a century of orthodox rule the island passed into the possession of the catholic Angevins. Michael II of Epiros, yielding to the Downloaded from exigencies of politics, had given his daughter in marriage to the ill-starred Manfred of Sicily, to whom she brought Corfu as a dowry. Upon the death of Manfred at the battle of Benevento the powerful Sicilian admiral Cbinardo occupied the island until he was murdered by the inhabitants at the instigation of Michael. http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ The crime did not, however, profit the crafty despot. The national party in Corfu endeavoured, indeed, to restore the island to the rule of the Angeli; but Chinardo's soldiers, under the leadership of a baron named AUamanno, successfully resisted the agitation. As the defeat of Manfred had led to the establishment of Charles of Anjou as king of Naples and Sicily, and as they were a small foreign garrison in the midst of a hostile population, they thought it best to accept that powerful prince as lord of the island. at Carleton University on July 20, 2015 By the treaty of Viterbo the fugitive Latin emperor, Baldwin II, ceded to Charles any rights over it which he might possess, and thus in 1267 the Angevins came into possession of Corfu, though Ailn.Tna.nnn was allowed to retain the fortresses of the place until his death.' For more than five centuries the Latin race and the catholic religion predominated there. The Angevin rule, as might have been anticipated from its origin, was especially intolerant of the orthodox faith. Charles owed his crown to the pope, and was anxious to repay the obliga- tion by propagating Catholicism among his orthodox subjects. The Venetians, as we saw, had enjoined the tolerance of the Greek church during their brief period of domination, so that now for the first time the islanders learnt what religious perse- cution meant. The metropolitan of Corfu, whose office had been so greatly exalted by the despots of Epiros, was deposed, and in his room a less dignified ecclesiastic, called ' chief priest' (jjJyat -rrparrinrairdr), was substituted. The title of ' archbishop of Corfu' was now usurped by a Latin priest, and the principal churches were seized by the catholic clergy.4 In the time of the Angevins too the < Mostoxidi, p. 441. Allamanno belonged to a family from Langoedoc, which received the barony of Pairu after the Frank conquest of the More*, and whose name is still borne by the bridge near Thermopylae, the scene of the heroic fight of 1821. 4 Idromenos, Zvrowrudi 'Itrropla TT)T Ktpxipas, p. 68. There is, however, a document 1903 UNDER VENETIAN RULE 211 Jews, who still flourish there almost alone in Greece, made their first appearance in any numbers in Corfu, and first found protectors there; but the injunctions of successive sovereigns, bidding the people treat them well, would seem to show that this protection was seldom efficacious.1 The government of the island was also reorganised. An official was appointed to act as viceroy with the title of captain, and the country was divided into four bailiwicks. Many new fiefs were assigned, while some that already existed were transferred to Italians and Provencals. The Sicilian Vespers, which drove the house of Anjou from Sicily and handed that kingdom over to the rival house of Aragon, Downloaded from indirectly affected the fortunes of Corfu. The Corfiotes did not, indeed, imitate the Sicilians and massacre the French ; but their connexion with the AngevinB now exposed them to attack from the Aragonese fleets. Thus the famous Roger de Loria burnt the royal castle and levied black mail upon the inhabitants. Another http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ Roger, the terrible Catalan leader, De Flor, ravaged the fertile island in one of his expeditions; yet, in spite of these incursions, we find the condition of Corfu half a century later to have been far superior to that of the neighbouring lands. The fact that the diligent research of the local historians has brought to light so little information about the Angevin period in itself proves that, in that generally troubled time, Corfu enjoyed tranquillity. Beyond the at Carleton University on July 20, 2015 names of its sovereigns, Charles II of Naples, Philip I, Robert, and Philip II of Taranto, we know little about the island from the time when Charles II, reserving to himself the overlordship, transferred it as a fief in 1294 to his fourth son, the first of those princes, down to the death of the last in JL878. It then ex- perienced the evils of a disputed succession, and, as it espoused the cause of Queen Joanna I of Naples, it was attacked by the Navarrese mercenaries, who were in the pay of the rival candidate, Jacques de Baux, and who afterwards, as the name of Navarino reminds us, played so important a part in the Morea. When Joanna lost her crown and life at the hands of Charles HI of Durazzo, the latter obtained Corfu, and, with the usual kindness of usurpers insecure on their thrones, he confirmed the fiscal privileges which the Angeli had granted to the Corfiotes in the previous century.' But after his violent death four years later, in 1386, the decline of the Angevin dynasty and the unsettled condition of the east of Europe caused the islanders to turn their eyes in the direction of the only power which could protect them. Venice indeed had never forgotten her brief possession of of Philip II of Taranto in favour of the Greek clergy : Marmora, Delia Eistoria di Corfu, p. 228. * Romanos, 'H 'ZfipaXidi aoat£njs T^I Ktpicvpas, Mostoxidi, pp. 445-50. ' Mofltoiidi, p. 453. p % 212 THE IONIAN ISLANDS April Corfu: she had long been scheming how to recover so desirable a naval station, and her consul encouraged the Venetian party in the island. There was also a Genoese faction there, but its attempt to hold the old castle failed, and on 28 May 1886 the Corfiotes hoisted the standard of St. Mark. Six envoys—one of them, it is worth noting, a Jewish representative of the considerable Hebrew community—were appointed to offer the island to the Bepublic upon certain conditions, the chief of which were the confirmation of the privileges granted by the Angevins, a declaration that Venice would never dispose of the place to any other power, and a promise to maintain the existing system of fiefs. On 9 June a Downloaded from second document was drawn up, reiterating the desire of the islanders, ' or the greater and saner part of them,' to put them- selves under the shelter of the Bepublic. Since the death of Charles III, they said, ' the island has been destitute of all protection, while it has been coveted by jealous neighbours on every http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ side and almost besieged by Arabs and Turks.' Wherefore, ' con- sidering the tempest of the times and the instability of human affairs,' they had resolved to elect Miani, the Venetian admiral, captain of the island, and had entered the city without the least disturbance. The castle of Sant' Angelo held out for a time in the name of Ladislaus, king of Naples; but the transfer of the island was effected practically without bloodshed.

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