"Negrepont": the island of Evia from the Crusaders to the Venetians in the late Middle Ages

Located in the Aegean Sea, but very close to the northern coast of Attica and Boeotia and closely associated with the history of these regions, the island of Evia experienced a particular and original destiny during the last centuries of the Middle Ages. Like other regions of southern Greece, it was subdued after the Fourth Crusade by Latin conquerors, although in this case the majority were Italian rather than French. In the 13th century, it thus became part of the political and chivalric society of Frankish Greece.

At the same time, its ports and especially the main one, the present-day town of Chalcis, welcomed Venetian merchants, and the Serenissima early exerted an influence on the island that only increased with the external threats from the Byzantines, Catalans and then Ottoman Turks.

Although not originally part of the Venetian possessions in Greece, Evia became one, and was one of the last outside Crete and a few small islands. Nevertheless, it retained certain specific features right up to the end, notably its legal status. Its capture by the Ottomans in 1470 was experienced in Venice as a catastrophe comparable to the fall of Constantinople a few years earlier.

Contact: georges.kostakiotis@inalco.fr