As was only to be expected, very little fresh light has been thrown on
the Burgundian period. We learn however, from a Greek manuscript in the
Vatican library, how Leon Sgouros, the _archon_ of Nauplia, who long held
out at Akrocorinth against the Frankish conquerors, met his end. Rather
than be taken captive “he mounted his horse and leapt from Akrocorinth,
so that not a single bone in his body was left unbroken[132].” We find
too, in a letter from Honorius III to Othon de la Roche, dated February
12, 1225, the last allusion to the presence of the _Megaskyr_ in his
Athenian dominions before his return to France; and we hear of two
members of his family, William and Nicholas, both canons of Athens. The
former had _gravem in litteratura defectum_, or else he would have been
made archbishop of Athens; the latter is probably the same person whose
name has been found on the stoa of Hadrian[133].
The Catalan period receives much more illustration. We know at last the
exact date at which it ended, for a letter of Jacopo da Prato (probably
a relative of the Ludovico da Prato who was the first Florentine
archbishop of Athens), dated Patras, May 9, 1388, announces that Nerio
Acciajuoli _ebe adi 2 di questo lo chastello di Settino_[134]. Thus Don
Antonio Rubió y Lluch[135] was right in his surmise that Don Pedro de
Pau, who is mentioned as erroneously reported dead in a letter of John
I of Aragon, dated November 16, 1387, held out in the Akropolis down
to 1388. The Catalan scholar had shown that the brave commander of “the
Castle of Athens” had sent an envoy to John I, who received him “in the
lesser palace of Barcelona” on March 18, 1387, and who promised the
_sindici_ of Athens on April 26 to pay a speedy visit to his distant
duchy[136]. Don Antonio Rubió y Lluch also writes to me that Hopf was
mistaken in translating _Petrus de Puteo_ of the Sicilian documents—the
official whose high-handed proceedings led to a revolution at Thebes in
which he, his wife, and his chief followers lost their lives—as Peter
de Puig[137]. His name should really be Peter de Pou, and it is obvious
from the documents that Hopf’s chronology of his career is also wrong.
He is mentioned in a document of August 3, 1366, as already dead[138];
we learn that his official title was “vicar of the duchies”—that is to
say, deputy for Matteo de Moncada, the absent vicar-general—and he is
spoken of as “having presided in the duchies as vicar-general,” and as
“having presided in the office of the vicariate[139].” We find too that
the castle of Zeitoun or Lamia (_turrim Griffinam_) belonged to him[140].
Roger de Lluria, who was at this time marshal of the duchies[141], is
already officially styled as vicar-general[142] on August 3, 1366, though
the formal commission removing Matteo de Moncada and appointing Roger
de Lluria in his place was not made out till May 14 of the following
year[143]. The new vicar-general held till his death, which must have