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Hazard, H. W. (ed.) / Volume III: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
(1975)
VII: The Catalans and Florentines in Greece, 1380-1462, pp. 225-277
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Page 227
Ch. VII THE CATALANS AND FLORENTINES IN GREECE, 1380—1462 227 ing the same rights and privileges for him "as for all the other Conquistadors of the said duchies of Athens and Neopatras." The Articles as extant contain the Catalan text of king Peter's renewal of the full franchise which Frederick III had granted Rendi years before (on July 29, 1362) when Rendi, his sons, daughters, and descendants received the right to retain their Orthodox faith and at the same time to contract marriage with Latin Catholics, notwithstanding statutes which the Company had enunciated to the contrary. With the fran chise went the usual right to buy, sell, alienate, and exchange at will both movable and immovable goods "just like the Frankish inhabi tants of the aforesaid city [of Athens] ." 2 The king now directed his officials everywhere in the duchies to "consider the true fealty and the sincere loyalty of the notary Demetrius Rendi, citizen of our city of Athens, who has persevered in service, good faith, and loyalty toward our royal majesty, and with all his power and strength has maintained and defended the said territory of the duchies . . . against our mortal enemies, and yet, as our majesty has been informed, the said notary Demetrius Rendi has sustained affliction and anxiety in the castle of Megara when it was taken by our enemies." Demetrius's young brother-in-law and adopted son John Rendi shared with him all the benefits of enfranchisement, and Peter confirmed Demetrius's title to the property which the deceased Constantine Calochini had possessed in Athens, and which had re verted to the fisc upon his death. Frederick III had conferred this property on Demetrius between 1375 and 1377 after Rendi's valiant but vain defense of Megara against Nerio Acciajuoli. Finally, the king bestowed upon Demetrius and his heirs, "for all time and in perpetu ity," the office of chancellor of Athens, with an annual income of forty gold diners payable from the city's tolls and customs duties. Just outside Athens, off a road that runs to Piraeus, the little village of Rendi still stands, preserving the name and memory of the energetic notary Demetrius. As one turns the corner into the village, a superb view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon makes it clear that what was once the Rendi family estate, conceivably Constantine Calochini's own property, is close to the center of historic Athens. The Articles of Athens are in a rather haphazard order, and show signs of haste in compilation. After the king had made some further grants of property he was finally asked "to turn his eyes toward the noble Don Galcerán of Peralta," whom the Navarrese in Thebes were 2. The grant of July 29, 1362, of the franchise to Demetrius Rendi, or rather the confirmation of his Catalan citizenship, may be found in Lampros, Eggrapha (1906), part IV, doc. 94, pp. 342—343, and in Dipl., doc. CCLXIX, pp. 353—354, misdated 1366.
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