Guido Pallavicini

Guido Pallavicini († 1237 ) was an Italian crusader of the fourth crusade and as the first Margrave of Boudonitza one of the first Latin feudal lords of Greece .

Pallavicini came from a noble family from the Parma region who traced their descent to the Obertenghi . During the fourth crusade (1202-1204) he was probably part of the Lombard entourage of Margrave Boniface of Montferrat , although he was not mentioned in the course of the crusade. He is mentioned for the first time in the autumn of 1204, when he was appointed Lord of Boudonitza on the march to Greece by Boniface of Montferrat, who had risen to King of Thessaloniki , and was charged with securing the strategically important bottleneck of the Thermophylen . Together with his brother Rubino, he is mentioned at the siege of Acrocorinth , in which the Byzantine archon Leon Sgouros was entrenched. After the death of Boniface in 1207, Pallavicini, like all other Lombards, was involved in the revolt against the child king Demetrius and his mother. Against the Emperor Heinrich he holed up with most of the rebels in the Kadmeia of Thebes , but had to surrender to the Emperor there at the end of May 1209. In the course of a general compensation, Pallavicini was able to keep his fief. In May 1210 he also took part in the second parliament of Ravennika, where he signed the Concordat with the Latin-Roman Church.

In 1221 Pallavicini is named as the bailli of the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, which was conquered in 1224 by the Byzantine despot of Epirus , Theodorus I Angelos . With the support of his Latin neighbors and the Prince of Achaia , Pallavicini was able to hold out against Theodoros Angelos in Boudonitza. An attempt to recapture Thessaloniki with the help of Margrave Wilhelm VI. von Montferrat failed that same year. Pallavicini's fiefdom now represented the northernmost Latin feudal territory in Greece and now assumed the role of a classic border march. He was called "Marchesopoulo" by his Greek subjects. While the hostile Greco-Byzantine Epirus and Thessaloniki bordered to the north and west, it was adjacent to the allied Latin rulers of Athens and Evia (Negroponte) in the south and east .

Guido Pallavicini laid down his will on May 2nd, 1237 and died shortly afterwards as one of the last knights of the fourth crusade. He was married to a lady Sybilla, who was probably related to the Lord of Athens, Guido I. de la Roche . He had three children with her:

• Ubertino Pallavicini († around 1264), Margrave of Boudonitza
• Isabella Pallavicini († 1286), Margravine of Boudonitza
• Mabila Pallavicini, ∞ Azzo VII. D'Este , Margrave of Ferrara

literature

• W. Miller: The Marquisate of Boudonitza (1204-1414) , in: The Journal of Hellenic Studies (JHS) 28 (1908), pp. 234-249

Web link

• The Margraves of Boudonitza at fmg.ac (English)

annotation

1. ↑ Boudonitza was today's Mendenitsa, belonging to the municipality of Molos in the district of Fthiotida in the administrative region of Central Greece .