The Principality of Morea in Crisis: An Identity Compromised

Abstract In the course of the second half of the thirteenth century, the territorial integrity of the Principality of Morea was breached as a consequence of the successful pursuit by the Byzantines of a programme of re-conquest, causing relations between Latin settlers and native Greeks to come under pressure. During the same decades, the political autonomy of the Morea was compromised due to the acknowledgement of Angevin suzerainty. The claims of the ruling Villehardouin dynasty became less easy to substantiate, while the power and prestige of the aristocracy also suffered. Events appear to have reached a culmination by the 1320s. These circumstances may explain why it had become so important by the second quarter of the fourteenth century to articulate certain ideological assertions in written form. It is surely neither insignificant nor accidental that it was precisely at the time at which it faced its greatest threat that Moreot identity came to receive its most uncompromising expression. The Chronicle of Morea, as we shall see, both marked and sought to mask the dissolution of the Principality. This chapter examines the place and function of the genre of historiography in a period of political upheaval. By focusing on the perception of events by the Moreots themselves, it becomes possible to suggest a motivation for the creation of the original Chronicle. Following on from this, one can then address the issue of the elaboration of the versions in different languages. As we shall see, the textual metamorphosis of the work both reflected and sought to generate certain external realities. Of the different versions, each can be shown to occupy a particular social space, both as a product of a particular environment and as an agent at work in that environment.