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Hazard, H. W. (ed.) / The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
(1975)
VII: The Catalans and Florentines in Greece, 1380-1462, pp. 225-277
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Page 225
VII THE CATALANS AND FLORENTINES IN GREECE 1380—1462 During the last decade of Catalan rule in the Athenian duchy (1379—1388) the Aragonese chancery issued almost 250 documents relating to Greek affairs. The number attests the royal concern with such affairs, as well as the fortunate survival of the Archives of the Crown in Barcelona. As the shock of the Navarrese invasion subsided, a parliament was assembled in Athens to which were summoned the syndics, aldermen, and council of the municipal corporation. This parliament prepared a petition, dated May 20, 1380, for submission to king Peter IV, who by accepting or rejecting its terms would determine the conditions under which the chief officers and citizens of Athens would become the vassals of the crown of Aragon. Rubió i Lluch has called this important document the "Articles of Athens" (els Capitols d'Atenes); of the sixteen or seventeen items which it contains, only four or five relate to the common concerns of the state and the community. The remaining dozen items consist of personal requests which seem to show small understanding of the perilous condition to which the duchy of Athens had been reduced; the parliament at Athens was anxious to secure rewards from the crown for those who had proved their loyalty by resisting the Navarrese invasion. The parliament was under the dominance of Romeo de Bellarbre, castellan and captain of Athens, and Galcerán of Peralta had become merely "our former governor" as he languished in his Theban prison. The petitioners' first request of Peter IV was that he send them a proper "official" to govern the duchies, one who could reconquer For bibliography see preceding chapter. 225
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