| Zaccaria | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Parent family | de Castro |
| Country |  Republic of Genoa |
| Etymology | Zaccaria de Castro |
| Founded | c. 1235 |
| Founder | Fulcone Zaccaria (son ofZaccaria de Castro) |
| Titles | |
| Estate | Zaccaria Palace, Genoa |
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TheZaccaria family was a nobleGenoese family that had great importance in the development and consolidation of theRepublic of Genoa in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and whose only surviving branch (Zaccaria de Damalà) produced the last ruling dynasty of thePrincipality of Achaea inFrankish Greece.
The Zaccaria family, also named Zaccaria di Castro, through their descent from a branch of the olderDe Castro family from Gavi, which was further a branch of theviscounts of Carmandino, dating back to 952, was a very prominent family in the Republic of Genoa, which following theTreaty of Nymphaeum of 1261, were granted by Byzantine emperorMichael VIII Palaiologos important trading rights in theEmpire of Nicaea, as a reward for the help received in the recovery of theByzantine Empire, and, more generally, in an anti-Venetian function.
In this context, the Zaccaria assumed thelordship of Phocaea in 1275, first with Manuele then with his son Tedisio and, then, withBenedetto I Zaccaria, who also held high posts as admiral of the Republic in Genoa, and admiral of the Kingdoms of France and of Castille. Phocaea was an important commercial port, with its hinterland rich inalum, mineral at the time used for the tanning of leathers and fabrics.[1]
In Genoa, they established intense relationships with the most important families of the aristocracy through marriages:
The Zaccaria controlled all the alum trade: from extraction to transport to its transformation and sale mainly inFlanders.
After alternating events that saw the Zaccaria lose, at the hands of the Venetians, and reconquer Phocaea and the island ofChios, they also took possession of the island ofSamos. Benedetto II, known asPaleologo, due to his mother's lineage, son ofBenedetto Zaccaria, on his death in 1307, assumed the title ofLord of Phocaea andChios.[2]
He was succeeded in the title by his two sons,Martino Zaccaria, who would achieve further titular recognizion asKing and Despot of Asia Minor from titularLatin Emperor Phillip III, and Benedetto III, their lordship reconfirmed and increased with the dominion ofSamos,Tenedos, Marmora,Mytilene, and other territories.
After various events, he married in 1311 withJacqueline de la Roche, the last heir of theDukes of Athens, receiving as a dowry the baronies ofVeligosti inMessenia andDamala on theArgolid Peninsula, he died inSmyrna in 1345. Upon his death, his eldest living son,Centurione I Zaccaria, inherited his father's titles which bolstered his position in Latin Greece, having already inherited the title ofBaron of Damala from his elder brother,Bartolomeo Zaccaria, upon his death in 1334. Centurione was married to the daughter ofAndronikos Asen, the son ofIvan Asen III of Bulgaria andIrene Palaiologina, daughter ofMichael VIII Palaiologos. In 1364, Centurione assumed the office ofBailiff of Achaea, in which he ruled in the name of the absent princes until his death in the 1380s.[3][4]
TheZaccaria de Damalà branch in Greece would end up in time outranking, outshining, and outliving the main Genoese branch of the Zaccaria family through their own merits and exploits, rising to become the last ruling dynasty of thePrincipality of Achaea, and would later become the prominentDamalas noble family in Chios and in the modernKingdom of Greece.
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