Frankish Occupation

  In 1204 the Crusaders and the Vene­tians signed an agreement in Constan­tinople dividing up the Byzantine Empire. The islands passed into Venetian hands. In 1236 Matteo Orsini declared alle­giance to the principality of Achaea. In 1258 his son, Ricardo, succeeded him; he was no less cunning than his father. He used his wiles to marry his son, loannes I, to the daughter of the Despot of Epirus, who became Count of Kefalo­nia upon his father's death in 1303. loannes' first-born son, Nicolaus, was not only heir to his father's holdings, but he murdered the despot of Epirus and took his title. In 1323 his brother, loannes II, murdered him for his titles, but he didn't stop there. He usurped his sister's dowry and the property of her husband, William Tocco, which amounted to half of the island of Zakinthos. He acknowledged the Emperor Andronicus II as his sover­eign and to increase his popularity renounced the Orsini lineage and adopt­ed the name loannes Angelus Com­nenus. Upon learning of these events, the d'Anjou kings of Naples demanded that loannes take an oath of allegiance. When he refused, the king of Naples married the widow of the prince of Achaea to the Count of Gravina and sent him to fight loannes Commenus. In 1335 loannes' wife poisoned him. His son Nicephorus reigned for only two years (1356-1358).

In 1357 the king of Naples gave Leonardo I Tocco the islands of Kefalo­nia, Zakinthos, Ithaki, Lefkada and Vonit­sa as a reward for his services. His suc­cessor, Carolus I, added them to his holdings in Epirus. Carolus I died in 1429 and was succeeded by his nephew, Car­olus II. In order to save what he could from the Turks, Carolus II ceded the town of loannina to them. They were not appeased, however; in 1442 they seized control of Zakinthos and the Pelopon­nese. In 1448 Carolus II died and his son Leonard III, still a child, took the throne. Leonard sought help from the Venetians in regaining his lost territories. He reinsti­tuted the Orthodox diocese which had been abolished and refused to pay the onerous taxes imposed by the treaty between the Venetians and the Turks. Pursued by the Turks, Leonard retreated

to Neapoli. The Ionian islands, with the exception of Corcyra, fell into Turkish hands in 1479.

The brother of Leonard III, Antonius, took Kefalonia back in 1481, but he was so tyrannical that the Kefalonians killed him and surrendered to the Venetians. In the treaty of April 22, 1485, Kefalonia was ceded to the Turks. This period was one of the worst the island has ever known.