Duchy of the Archipelago: Encyclopedia II - Duchy of the Archipelago - Collapse and Ottoman conquest

Duchy of the Archipelago - Collapse and Ottoman conquest

Before the last Latin Christian duke, Jacopo IV Crispo, was deposed in 1566 by Sultan Selim II, he was already paying the Sultan tribute. The Sultan's appointed representative, the last Duke of Archipelago (1566-79) was a Portuguese Marrano, Joseph Nasi. The Sultan's policy was based on the expectation that a foreign Jew would not be able to win support from the Orthodox Naxiotes to establish an independent rule. Joseph Nasi was married to his cousin, Dona Reyna, an intrepid heiress whose family had fled Spain with their fortune at the Expulsion. At Joseph's death in 1579, the Sultan expropriated much of his widow's wealth except for the 90,000 dinars stipulated in her ketubah (marriage contract). With this inheritance, Dona Reyna established a Hebrew press, first in her palatial residence in Belvedere, then in a suburb of Constantinople.

Even then Latin Christian rule was not entirely extinguished, for the Bolonese Gozzadini survived as lords of Siphnos other little islands in the Cyclades until 1617, and the island of Tenos remained Venetian until 1714. The last Venetian ports in Morea (the Peloponnese) were captured in 1718.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Collapse and Ottoman conquest", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki