Rule of the Florentines (1388-1456)

In time, the duchy of Athens, which had been founded by the Catalans in Greece, ceased to be a dependency of the kingdom of Sicily. Internal conflicts and external enemies, the Franks, the Turks, the Venetians and the Florentines brought about the weakening of the Catalan states. Gradually, the Catalans lost important acquisitions and were eventually unable to maintain their power for long.

The military rule of the Catalans in the eastern Greek Mainland (Central Greece) was succeeded in 1388 by the rule of the Florentine family Acciaiuoli, who had already secured acquisitions in the Peloponnese. Nerio I Acciaiuoli took advantage of the internal feuds and developed an intense behind-the-scenes activity, thus succeeding, mostly through acts of diplomacy, in becoming the lord of the duchy of Athens and of Neopatras (Hypate). When the Florentine ruler of Central Greece died in 1394, he bequeathed Athens to the Latin Church of the Virgin (Santa Maria di Atene) and assigned to Venice the execution of his will.

The Venetians, under the pretext that the clause of Nerio’s will granted them rights over Athens, seized the Acropolis in 1397 and intercepted the Turks, who had seized the city of Neopatras three years prior to that and had reached the environs of Athens. However, the main enemy of Venice was Antonio I Acciaiuoli, the illegitimate son of Nerio, who besieged Athens promptly and ousted the Venetians in 1402. Antonio had been the prince of the duchy of Athens initially as tributary to the Venetians and later to the Turks, in the period between 1402 and 1435.

In mid-15th century the duchy knew a period of ephemeral freedom, when in 1444 Constantine Palaiologos in an ultimate effort to regain the territories of the Byzantine Empire seized Thebes and forced Nerio II Acciaiuoli, successor of Antonio, to recognize his suzerainty. In 1456, though, the Turks, who had long ago surrounded Attica, seized Athens, converted the Acropolis into a mosque (in 1458) and put an end to the Latin rule over this area.