Duchy of the Archipelago | |||||||||
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1207–1579 | |||||||||
Coat of arms of the two ruling houses of the Duchy, the House of Sanudo (1207–1383, left) and House of Crispo (1383–1566, right)
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Status | Client state* | ||||||||
Capital | Naxos | ||||||||
Common languages | Italian and Venetian officially, Greek popularly | ||||||||
Religion | Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox popularly | ||||||||
Government | Feudal Duchy | ||||||||
Duke | |||||||||
• 1207–27 | Marco I Sanudo | ||||||||
• 1383–97 | Francesco I Crispo | ||||||||
• 1564–66 | Giacomo IV Crispo | ||||||||
• 1566–79 | Joseph Nasi | ||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
1204 | |||||||||
• Duchy established | 1207 | ||||||||
• Crispo coup d'état | 1383 | ||||||||
• Ottoman suzerainty | 1537 | ||||||||
• Expropriated by Murad III | 1579 | ||||||||
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* The duchy was a client state of, in order, the Latin Emperors at Constantinople, the Villehardouin dynasty of princes of Achaea, the Angevins of the Kingdom of Naples and (after 1418) the Republic of Venice. From 1566–79, the duchy was administered as a part of the Ottoman Empire before total annexation. |
The Duchy of the Archipelago (Greek: Δουκάτο του Αρχιπελάγους, romanized: Doukáto tou Archipelágous, Italian: Ducato dell'arcipelago, Venetian: Ducato de l'arcipelago), also known as Duchy of Naxos or Duchy of the Aegean, was a maritime state created by Venetian interests in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, centered on the islands of Naxos and Paros. It included all the Cyclades (except Mykonos and Tinos). In 1537, it became a tributary of the Ottoman Empire, and was annexed by the Ottomans in 1579; however, Christian rule survived in islands such as Sifnos (conquered by the Ottomans in 1617) and Tinos (conquered in 1715).