Essays on the Latin Orient — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Essays on the Latin Orient
John Stuart Mill · en
Such were the arrangements between the company and the mother-country,
arrangements which worked so well that in 220 years there was only
one revolt against her, when Marshal Boucicault occupied Genoa for
the King of France. Considering their contract thereby annulled, the
Giustiniani deposed the _podestà_ and on December 21, 1408, proclaimed
their independence. Venice allowed them to buy provisions and arms;
but in June, 1409, a Genoese force under Corrado Doria forced them to
yield[494]. Let us now look at their relations with foreign powers. Of
these, three were at one time or another a menace to their existence—the
Greek Empire, Venice, and the Turks. Both Anne of Savoy[495] and
Cantacuzene demanded the restoration of Chios from the Republic, which
replied that no official orders had been given for its capture and the
government could assume no responsibility for the acts of a private
company, nor could it dislodge the latter without great expense; at some
future date, however, when circumstances were more favourable, it would
undoubtedly be possible to restore it to the Emperor. The latter was not
satisfied with this reply, but bade the Genoese envoys, who were sent to
pacify him, fix a definite date for the evacuation of Chios. It was then
agreed between him and the Republic that the _maonesi_ should retain the
city of Chios, and enjoy its revenues, for ten years, on condition that
they paid an annual tribute of 12,000 gold pieces to the Emperor, hoisted
his flag, mentioned his name in their public prayers, and received
their metropolitan from the church of Constantinople. The rest of the
island, including the other forts, was to belong to the Emperor, and
to be governed by an Imperial official, who was to decide all disputes
between the Greeks, while those between a Greek and a Latin were to be
referred to the two Byzantine and Genoese authorities sitting together.
At the end of the ten years, calculated from Cantacuzene’s occupation of
Constantinople, the Genoese were to evacuate Chios altogether. Vignoso
and his co-partners, however, declined to be bound by an arrangement
made between the Emperor and the Republic, whereupon Cybo attempted to
restore Greek rule, and perished in the attempt. The two Foglie were,
however, temporarily reoccupied[496], but the Greek peril ceased when
the Emperor John V Palaiologos in 1363 granted Chios to Pietro Recanelli
and his colleagues in return for an annual payment of 500 _hypérpera_
(or £224)[497]. Eight years earlier the position of the _maona_ had been
strengthened by the same Emperor’s gift of Lesbos as his sister’s dowry
to another Genoese, Francesco Gattilusio, whose family, as time went on,
ruled also over Thasos, Lemnos, Samothrace, Imbros, and the town of Ænos
on the mainland, in 1913 the Turkish frontier in Europe. In 1440 John VI
renewed the charter of 1363.