In the early autumn of 1329, Andronikos assembled a magnificent fleet of
105 vessels, including four galleys furnished by Duke Nicolò I of Naxos,
with the ostensible object of attacking the Turks but with the real
intention of subduing the Genoese lord of Chios. Even at this eleventh
hour the Emperor would have been willing to leave him in possession of
the rest of the island, merely placing an Imperial garrison in the new
castle and insisting upon the regular payment of Benedetto’s annuity.
Martino, however, was in no mood for negotiations. He sank the three
galleys which he had in the harbour, forbade his Greek subjects to wear
arms under pain of death, and shut himself up with 800 men behind the
walls, from which there floated defiantly the flag of the Zaccaria,
instead of the customary Imperial standard. But, when he saw that his
brother had handed over a neighbouring fort to the Emperor, and that no
reliance could be placed upon his Greek subjects, he sent messengers
begging for peace. Andronikos repulsed them, saying that the time for
compromise was over, whereupon Martino surrendered. The Chians clamoured
for his execution; but Cantacuzene saved his life, and he was conveyed
a prisoner to Constantinople, while his wife Jacqueline de la Roche, a
connexion of the former ducal house of Athens, was allowed to go free
with her family and all that they could carry. Martino’s adherents
were given their choice of leaving the island with their property, or
of entering the Imperial service, and the majority chose the latter
alternative. The nationalist leaders were rewarded for their devotion by
gifts and honours; the people were relieved from their oppressive public
burdens. To Benedetto the Emperor offered the governorship of Chios
with half the net revenues of the island as his salary—a generous offer
which the Genoese rejected with scorn, asserting that nothing short of
absolute sovereignty over it would satisfy him. If that were refused, he
only asked for three galleys to carry him and his property to Galata.
Andronikos treated him with remarkable forbearance, in order that public
opinion might not accuse an Emperor of having been guilty of meanness,
and, on the proposal of Cantacuzene, convened an assembly of Greeks and
of the Latins who were then in the island—Genoese and Venetian traders,
the Duke of Naxos, the recently appointed Roman Catholic bishop of Chios
and some other Frères Prêcheurs who had arrived—in order that there might
be impartial witnesses of his generosity. Even those of Benedetto’s own
race and creed regarded his obstinate refusal of the Imperial offer with
disapprobation; nor would he even accept a palace and the rank of Senator
at Constantinople with 20,000 gold pieces a year out of the revenues of
Chios; nothing but his three galleys could he be persuaded to take. His
object was soon apparent. Upon his arrival at Galata, he chartered eight
Genoese galleys, which he found lying there, and set out to reconquer