we now possess it dates after Villehardoin had gained possession of the principality, and in it the most important barony in a military point of view, and the largest in extent, was that of Akova. This barony embraced the valley of the Ladon, and the district that still retains the name of Achoves. It protected the rich valley of the Alpheus and the plains of Elis from the attacks of the Sclavonians, who occupied the mountains to the north of the upper valley of the Alpheus, immediately to the east of the possessions of the baron of Akova. The country inhabited by the Sclavonians was called Skorta, and the French had found it for their interest to detach these Sclavonians from the Greek cause by a separate treaty, concluded soon after the taking of Patras, which left them in possession of their local independence, with all the privileges they had enjoyed under the Byzantine emperors.1 The Sclavonians of Skorta, or the Gortynian district, and of Melingon, or the slopes of Mount Taygetus, were at this period the only survivors of the great immigration that had threatened to exterminate the Hellenic race in the eighth and ninth centuries. The barony of Akova, established to watch these independent mountaineers, was endowed with twenty-four knight'sfees; and the fortress which its barons constructed as a bulwark of the French power was called Mategrifon, or Stop-Greek.2

The barony next in importance was that of Karitena

the city granted to Geffrey; but Coron in the act of partition is appropriated to the Venetians, and we know that Kalamata was the family fief of the Villehardoins.

1 Litre de la Conqueste, p. 39, where Skorta is called Escorta. The word appears to be a corruption of Gortys, in this locality.

Colonel Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 149, and Boblaye, Recherches Géogra phiques sur les Ruines de la Morée, p. 152, agree in thinking that the ruined castle named Galata, near the site of Teuthis, marks the position of Akova, or Mategrifon. Perhaps armorial bearings may be some day discovered in the ruins, that will identify this important position. Meletius calls it Iakova, and says it was in ruins in his time, p. 403. The western nations at this time generally called the Greeks Grifons. Ducange, Glossarium media et infimæ Latinitatis, v. Griffones. Compare Richard of Devizes. Bohn's Chronicles of the Crusaders, p. 19, 41.

A. D.

1207.

$ 1.

CHAP. VIII. or Skorta, placed within the limits of the territory once held by the Sclavonian Skortiots, and commanding the ordinary line of communication between the central plains of the Peloponnesus and the western coast. The castle of Karitena, which the French constructed, was well selected as a post for maintaining the command of the upper valley of the Alpheus, while it secured the passes into the maritime plain. This barony consisted of twentytwo knight's-fees. The two great baronies of Akova and Karitena formed the barrier of the French possessions both against the Sclavonians of Skorta and the Greeks of Argolis, and the Byzantine garrisons of Corinth, Argos, and Nauplia.

The other important military positions in which baronies were established, but which are now deserted and almost unknown, were Veligosti, Gritzena, Passava, Geraki, and Nikli. Veligosti was a considerable Greek town at the epoch of the invasion, but, like Andravida, it had grown up in a time of general security, and was without fortifications. It was situated on a low hill near the point of intersection of the ancient roads from Sparta to Megalopolis, and from Messene to Tegea, where they quit the mountains to enter the upper valley of the Alpheus. Its site is not far from the modern town of Leondari, which rose out of its ruins about the end of the fourteenth century. The barony of Veligosti consisted of only four knight's-fees, but the city lying within the baron's military jurisdiction gave him baronial rank. Gritzena was the barony created to watch the Sclavonian mountaineers on Mount Taygetus--the Melings of Byzantine history and to defend the valley of the Pamisas against their incursions.1 Passava was an advanced post established in the heart of Maina, to tame the Greek

1 Gritzena was in Lakkos, the name given to the upper part of the great Messenian Valley; but its exact position is not known.-Book of the Conquest, Greek text, p. 73, v. 617.

$ 1.

mountaineers of the savage peaks that run out into the CHAP. VIII. sea to the south of the great summits of Taygetus, and to protect the Greek maritime community in the city of Maina, at the extreme southern point of the Peloponnesus. It was situated on the eastern coast of the promontory, about four miles to the south of Gythium, where the ruins of a castle destroyed by the Venetians under Morosini may still be seen rising over the foundations of a city of the heroic age.1 Passava was rather a frontier garrison than a mere fief; and as, from its situation, it was exposed to have its regular communications with the rest of the principality frequently interrupted, it required to be occupied by a permanent body of troops. The baron of Passava was consequently named hereditary marshal of Achaia, as being the head of what might be looked upon as the standing army and military establishment of the principality. His office gave him full baronial power in his territory, as well as peculiar judicial authority in the army, though his fief consisted of only four knight's-fees. The selection of this singular position for a French fortress, where the garrison could neither assist in protecting their own possessions from invasion nor attack the flank or rear of the enemy to advantage, and which was placed in a district where cavalry was utterly useless, leads us irresistibly to the conclusion that it was connected principally with trade or naval warfare, and that its object was to protect the commerce of the Greek subjects of the principality, or perhaps the privateers which from the ports of Maina issued out to plunder any flag that was viewed with hostile feelings, or which promised profit and impunity to the corsairs. Geraki was built on

the lower slope of the mountains that rise to the east of the valley of the Eurotas, near the site of Gerouthræ,

1 Colonel Leake identifies Passava with Las, a city destroyed by Castor and Pollux.-Leake's Travels in the Morea, i. 256. Strabo, lib. viii. c. v. 95, p. 364. Boblaye, Recherches, 87. Coronelli gives a plan of the fort, p. 38.

$ 1.

CHAP. VIII. and was well situated for covering the lower plains from the forays of the mountaineers of Tzakonia, and the incursions of the Byzantine garrison of Monemvasia. Nikli was a walled town of considerable importance, occupying the site of Tegea, and commanding the lines of communication between the southern provinces of Lacedæmonia and Messenia, and the northern of Corinthia and Argolis.1

Only a portion of the territory allotted to several of the feudatories had been subdued in the time of William de

1 The list of the feudatories of Achaia given by count Beugnot in his edition of the Assizes de Jerusalem, p. 428, is taken from the imperfect edition of the Greek Chronicle published in 1840. Buchon's subsequent editions of the French and Greek texts supply the means of correcting it; but it must not be forgotten that, as far as its chronology is concerned, the authority is doubtful. The following is the list :

Fiefs.

All those rated at only four knight's-fees must have had a city under their jurisdiction, or else been in possession of a baronial office. The list of the twelve barons of Achaia having the right to build fortresses and exercise supreme jurisdiction, which is given in the Achaian copy of the Assize of Romania, art. 43 and 94, is of a comparatively modern date, probably about the middle of the fourteenth century. Compare Buchon, Recherches et Matériaux, p. 118.

HEIRS OF CHAMPLITTE DISPOSSESSED.

217

Champlitte, whom the news of his elder brother's death compelled to return suddenly to France, in order to secure his rank in the nobility of Europe by receiving investiture of his paternal inheritance, and taking the oath of fealty to his suzerain within a year.

A. D.

1210.

SECT. II.-ACQUISITION OF THE PRINCIPALITY BY GEFFREY
VILLEHARDOIN-GEFFREY I.; GEFFREY 11.

William de Champlitte left his relation Hugh to act as his bailly in the principality during his absence; but, Hugh dying soon after the prince's departure, Geffrey Villehardoin was elected by the feudatories to act as bailly, on account of the high reputation he enjoyed for ability and warlike skill, for his influence over the Greek population, and for his intimate connection with the family of Champlitte. The election was in strict conformity with the feudal usages established in the empire of Romania. Geffrey availed himself of his position to increase his popularity with the feudatories and subjects of the principality, and did everything in his power to gain the friendship and favour of Henry, emperor of Romania, and the great vassals of the empire. He obtained from the emperor Henry a grant of the office of seneschal of Romania, which raised him to the rank of great feudatory of the empire at the parliament of Ravenika, where he had appeared previously only as the bailly of William de Champlitte. The manner in which he possessed himself of the principality of Achaia is extremely obscure, but it seems to have been done in an unjust and fraudulent way. From the terms in which the acquisition is stigmatised in the assize of Jerusalem, it is implied that William of Champlitte died while Villehardoin was acting as his bailly, and that the

1 We learn from a letter of Pope Innocent III. that the name of the bailly was Hugh de Cham—, doubtless Champlitte.—Tom. ii. 488, edit. Baluze.