William I de la Roche

William I de la Roche (died 1287) succeeded his brother, John I, as Duke of Athens in 1280.

Coat of arms of William

William reversed the territorial losses of his brother's reign, extending his control over Lamia and Gardiki. He married Helena Angelina Komnene, daughter of John I Doukas, ruler of Thessaly, securing a military alliance with him.[1][2]

In 1285, while Charles II of Naples, nominal prince of Achaea, was imprisoned, Robert of Artois, regent of the kingdom, named William bailiff and vicar-general of Achaea. William built the castle of Dimatra to defend Messenia from the Byzantine Empire. He was then the most powerful baron in Frankish Greece. In 1286, he arbitrated the succession of the March of Bodonitsa following the death of Isabella Pallavicini. He chose her cousin Thomas over her widower Antoine le Flamenc.

William's rule was peaceful, but short, as he died two years after assuming power in Achaea (1287).[3] He was succeeded by his son Guy, who was seven years old.[3]

Notes

1. Polemis, Demetrios I. (1968). The Doukai: A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography. London: The Athlone Press.
2. Trapp, Erich; Beyer, Hans-Veit (2001). Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 978-3-7001-3003-1.
3. The Latins in Greece and the Aegean from the Fourth Crusade to the End of the Middle Ages, K. M. Setton, The Cambridge Medieval History:Vol IV, The Byzantine Empire, ed. J.M Hussey, D.M. Nicol and G. Cowan, (Cambridge University Press, 1966), 410.

References

• Longnon, Jean (1969) [1962]. "The Frankish States in Greece, 1204–1311". In Setton, Kenneth M.; Wolff, Robert Lee; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.). A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311 (Second ed.). Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 234–275. ISBN 0-299-04844-6.