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 220 A HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES III 
on September 10, the king had sent two letters of similar tenor to Heredia
and other commanders and officials of the Hospital. 186 There is no reason
to believe that Heredia himself encouraged Urtu bia in the attack upon Thebes,
but it is possible that he knew it was in the offing, and he clearly did
nothing to prevent it. Little is known of the career of John de Urtubia.
 Of Nerio's well-known hostility to the Catalans we shall have further opportunity
to speak. But Urtubia found other allies, wheth er by prearrangement or not,
in Nicholas II dalle Carceri, lord of two "thirds" of Euboea and duke of
the Archipelago, and in Francis I Giorgio, marquis of Bodonitsa. At the end
of April 1381, when king Peter IV informed the Venetian bailie of Negroponte
of the (second) appointment of Philip Dalmau, viscount of Rocaberti, as vicar-gener
al of his Greek duchies, he requested Venetian aid to restrain the duke of
the Archipelago, the marquis of Bodonitsa, and others from rendering assistance
"to our enemies the Navarrese." 187 The Vene tians, however, were fighting
the Genoese in the War of Chioggia, and the attention of the statesmen of
the republic was directed to their affairs in northern Italy rather than
in central Greece. 
 The first known act of Peter IV as duke of Athens and Neopatras is dated
September 7, 1379, and in it his majesty notified Romeo de Bellarbre, "castellan
and captain of the castle and city of Athens," of the appointment of Philip
Dalmau, viscount of Rocaberti (1342— 1392), as vicar-general of the
duchies of Athens and Neopatras. He directed Bellarbre to give up the Acropolis
(lo castell) and the city to "mossén Dalmau," his friend and councillor.
On the same day a similar letter was written to William of Almenara, who
was still castellan and captain of Livadia. 188 Galcerán of Peralta,
castellan, captain, and veguer of Athens, had fallen into Urtubia's hands
while attempting either to defend or to recover Thebes. Obviously Peter already
knew this, for on September 8 he wrote to Peralta as castellá, capita
e veguer del castell e ciutat de Cetines, addressing the letter either to
him o a son loch tinent. Bellarbre had been holding the 
 186. Dipl., docs. CCCXCVIII, CD, pp. 487—489: "...intelleximus quod
Johannes d'Or tobia nacionis Navarre, qui pridem cum suis complicibus . .
, civitatem de Estives invasit et gentes in ea habitantes destruxit et improvide
disraubavit. . ." (p. 489). 
 187. Dipl., doc. CDLVII, pp. 525—526, dated April 31 (sic), 1381.
According to Stefano Magno (d. 1572), in the so-called Annali veneti, ed.
Hopf, Chroniques gréco-romanes, p. 183, "In questo anno [1383] si
fo morto Nicolo dale Carcere, ducha del Arcipielago et dominador de do terzi
de lisola de Negroponte, havendo fato molte cose cative et desoneste contra
suoi subditi. . . . [Nicolô} avea tratado cum una compagnia de Navarexi
. . . per signorizar Ia citade de Negroponte." 
 188. Dipl., doc. CCCLXXII, pp. 45 3—454.