Organization and administrative system

The organization imposed by Geoffrey I de Villehardouin in 1209 was military. The principality was divided into 12 baronies, which according to the Chronicle of the Morea were the following: the barony of Akova (Mategrifon in Arcadia) and Neopatras with 24 fiefs, of Skorta (in Karytaina) with 22 fiefs, of Nikli and Geraki with 6 fiefs, of Kalavryta with 12 fiefs, of Vostitza (Aigio) with 8 fiefs, of Veligosti, Gritsena, Passava (in Lakonia) and Chalandritza with 4 fiefs and of Kalamata as a personal fief of the Villehardouins.

The Franks were at a constant state of war and in the service of the prince all year long. According to the Chronicle and the law code of the principality, the Assizes of Romania, the holder of 4 fiefs (flamburar) had the obligation to provide military service with a knight and 12 sergeants. The holder of more fiefs provided for every additional fief a knight and two mounted sergeants.

As stipulated in the Chronicle of the Morea (ver. 1995-2004) and in the Assizes art. 70, the vassals were obliged to provide 4 months of military service and 4 months of frontier defence. The rest of the year could be spent at any place. As specified in the French Chronicle, the feudal lords could not leave the principality, with the only exception of the Holy Places. Even then, they were obliged to return within a year and a day, otherwise they would lose their annual income or their entire property, in case they delayed more that two years and two days (Assizes art. 111, 120).

After 1204, the Frankish administrative system adopted institutions of the preexisting Byzantine administration. The higher officials of the Frankish rule - officiales in the French version of the Chronicle - were the following: the seneschal (senescalus), a title borne by the prince of Achaia as the great vassal of the Latin emperor of Constantinople, the chancellor, who was the chief secretary and adviser of the prince, the marshal (marechal), who was a high military officer, the constable (connestable constabularius),who was responsible for the imperial stables, vested later with military powers, the treasurer (thesaurier), who was responsible for the treasury and the payments, the protoficier protovestiarius),who was responsible for administering the income of the prince, the castellan (chastelain), who was the castle-keeper and the pourveur des chastiaux, who was responsible for the replenishment of the castles.

Feudal system

The feudalization in the Peloponnese began with the crusaders. It is known that before the conquest in the Byzantine Empire large land property was the prevalent situation, especially in regions far from Constantinople, where supervision and influence by the central administration was scarce. Therefore, the Franks did not encounter great difficulty in organizing these regions into a feudal principality in imitation of the western model. Information as regards the organization after the conquest is mostly derived from the Chronicle of the Morea. As the Chronicles of that time (Sanudo, Muntaner) mention rather exaggeratedly, Franks and Greeks lived in concord with each other.

Charles I of Anjou did not bring about any changes. He ratified the territorial cessions to those who paid fealty, made new cessions to those who showed loyalty and seized the properties of those who did not want to subjugate themselves (proditores). The division into baronies was maintained, although their number had decreased due to the Byzantine advance. As to the second half of the 13th century, the archives of Charles I and a large part of the archives of Charles II, which have been entirely published, constitute an official and reliable source about the events of that period.

The nucleus of the feudal organization of the principality was the fief. The fief was not only a unit of income (sources refer to an annual income of 1000 hyperpyra), but determined the power and social status of the holder, who enjoyed administrative, judicial and economic rights. In the treaty of distribution of the territories of the Byzantine Empire (Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae) it was specified that the fief was hereditary both for boys and girls and was granted in return for an oath of vassalage and service to the Latin emperor.

The western feudal system was characterized by the vassalage (homage, referred to as "anthropea" in the Chronicle of the Morea), meaning the relationship of dependence of a free man upon another. The Chronicle of the Morea is an important guide for understanding the procedure of vassalage and the ceremony of granting the fief (investir. The vassal and his lord entered into a contract. The vassal pledged vassalage to his lord and the latter declared the former "his man" and ceded him the fief. Thus, reciprocal obligations were engendered. The seigneur ensured protection for the vassal and the fief (military help, legal protection in the court) and the vassal was obliged to provide assistance and counsel (auxilium et consilium) to the seigneur.

A version of the vassalage contract was the liege homage (hommage lige, ver. 7891 of the Chronicle of the Morea), according to which the vassal pledged exclusive loyalty to his seigneur against any third party, as opposed to the simple homage, which could be rendered to more than one seigneurs. According to the Assizes, art. 99, the vassal who had pledged to many seigneurs, should help, in case of war, the one to whom he had first sworn loyalty.

In the Peloponnese two kinds of fiefs were reported. The first category included the fiefs of the conquest, which were privileged, hereditary, they belonged to the descendants of the first conquerors by virtue of a hereditary right and were transferred to the first-born boys or girls and to collateral relatives. The widow of the feudal lord had rights over the hereditary fiefs, seeing that half of her husband’s property corresponded to her (douaire,ver. 7239 of the Chronicle of the Morea). The second category included the fiefs, which were called "neo doma" and were transferred only to the descendants of first degree and not to collateral relatives. The Byzantine rulers maintained their patrilineal property, according to the Byzantine law.