Barony of Kalavryta
{{Infobox former subdivision
|_noautocat = no
|native_name =
|conventional_long_name = Barony of Kalavryta
|common_name = Kalavryta
|subdivision = Barony
|nation = the Principality of Achaea
|status_text =
|government_type = Feudal lordship
|title_leader = Baron
|leader1 =
|year_leader1 =
|capital = Kalavryta
|coordinates = {{Coord|38|2|N|22|7|E|display=inline,title}}
|year_start = 1209
|year_end = 1270s
|event_start =
|event_end = Byzantine reconquest
|life_span =
|era = Middle Ages
|image_flag =
|flag_type =
|flag =
|image_coat =
|symbol_type =
|symbol =
|image_map = Peloponnese Middle Ages map-en.svg
|image_map_caption = Map of the Peloponnese with its principal locations during the late Middle Ages
|p1 =
|flag_p1 =
|s1 = Despotate of the Morea
|flag_s1 = Byzantine imperial flag, 14th century, square.svg
|footnotes =
}}
The Barony of Kalavryta was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the town of Kalavryta ({{langx|el|Καλάβρυτα}}; {{langx|fr|La Colo[u]vrate}}).Bon (1969), p. 467
History
The Barony of Kalavryta was established ca. 1209, after the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Crusaders, and was one of the original twelve secular baronies within the Principality of Achaea. The Chronicle of the Morea mentions that the barony, centred on the mountain town of Kalavryta, comprised twelve knight's fiefs, with Otho of Durnay as the first baron.Miller (1921), pp. 71–72Bon (1969), p. 467 In the 1260s, he was succeeded by Geoffrey of Durnay, who is attested as being active as late as 1289. In 1292, his son John is mentioned, but the family disappears thereafter.Bon (1969), pp. 182, 467–468 By that time, the barony had already been lost to the Byzantine Greeks of Mystras. A Venetian document from 1278 seems to indicate that Kalavryta was under Greek control at the time. Antoine Bon suggests that it was captured during the early 1270s, when the Greek offensives broke through the Frankish defences in Arcadia, and not, as Karl Hopf suggests, in the first round of Greek offensives ca. 1264.Bon (1969), pp. 145–146, 468 Geoffrey of Durnay is attested as holding the barony of "La Grite" after 1278, which, according to Bon, is to be identified with the vacant Barony of Gritzena, apparently given to the Durnays as compensation.Bon (1969), pp. 145–146, 420–421
Very little is known of the barony's extent or internal history, except that the Premonstratensians had established themselves there.Bon (1969), pp. 100, 469
References
{{reflist|2}}
Sources
- {{La Morée franque}}
- {{Essays on the Latin Orient}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalavryta, Barony of}}
Category:States and territories established in 1209
Category:States and territories disestablished in the 1270s