The manager of the Antwerp
branch was an astute Portuguese Jew, who at one time called himself João
Miquez and posed as a Christian, and then reverted to Judaism and styled
himself Joseph Nasi. A marriage with a wealthy cousin made him richer
than before; he migrated to the Turkish dominions, where Jews were very
popular with the Sultans, and became a prime favourite of Selim II. This
was the man on whom that sovereign now bestowed the Duchy; and thus,
by a prosaic freak of fortune, the lovely island of classical myth and
mediæval romance became the property of a Jewish banker. Nasi, as a Jew,
knew that he would be loathed by the Greeks, so he never visited his
orthodox Duchy, but appointed a Spaniard named Coronello to act as his
agent, and to screw as much money as possible out of the inhabitants. In
this he was very successful.
As soon as Giacomo IV was released he set out for the west to procure
the aid of the Pope and Venice for the recovery of his dominions, even
pledging himself in that event to do homage to the Republic for them.
But, in spite of the great victory of Lepanto, the Turks remained in
undisturbed possession of the Duchy, except for a brief restoration of
Giacomo’s authority by Venice in 1571. On the accession of Murad III
Giacomo had hopes of obtaining his further restoration through the good
offices of the new Sultan’s mother, a native of Paros, belonging to the
distinguished Venetian family of Baffo. But though she promised her
aid, and he went to plead his cause in person at Constantinople, the
Sultan was inexorable. The last of the Dukes died in the Turkish capital
in 1576, and was buried in the Latin church there. Three years later
Joseph Nasi died also, whereupon the Duchy was placed under the direct
administration of the Porte.
But though Naxos and all the important islands had been annexed by
the Turks, there still remained a few fragments of the Latin rule in
the Levant. The seven islands of Siphnos, Thermia, Kimolos, Polinos,
Pholegandros, Gyaros, and Sikinos were retained by the Gozzadini family
on payment of a tribute until 1617, while Venice still preserved Tenos as
a station[170] in the Levant for a whole century more. Everywhere else
in the Ægean the crescent floated from the battlements of the castles
and palaces where for three and a half centuries the Latin nobles had
practised the arts of war.