Damalas
The House of Zaccaria de Damalà—now Damalas— is a formerly ruling family of Genoese origin, established in the 14th century on the Greek island of Chios, due to the marriage of Admiral Benedetto I Zaccaria with a sister of Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos; it later received the hereditary dignity of “King and Despot of Asia Minor” by grant of the Latin emperor in 1325, and ultimately produced the last ruling dynasty of the Principality of Achaea in the 15th century.
After the dissolution of the family's Lordship of Chios in 1329, they concentrated their efforts on the Barony of Damalà in the Principality of Achaea, which they previously acquired through marriage to Jacqueline de la Roche, heiress of the dukes of Athens. In time, they became the principality's last titled rulers, marrying in the process with other major houses ruling over Greek territories and in the Balkans, most notably, the Palaiologos, Asen and Tocco families. In the decades following the loss of their domains in the mid-15th century, the Zaccaria element of their name was gradually dropped, reduced to Damalà in reference to their former Achaean seat, and by the early 19th century, Hellenized to Damalas.
From the 15th to 20th centuries, the family maintained noble standing under Ottoman and Venetian dominion, particularly on Chios until its 1913 induction into the independent Kingdom of Greece, where they also held prominence since its 1832 founding through civic leadership, recurring royal association, and integration into aristocratic and political life. Their presence was also distinctly marked in the cities of Ermoupoli, Constantinople, Athens, and Piraeus, where they remained influential into the 20th century.
The Damalas that are descended from the Zaccaria dynasty share their name with other unrelated families of purely Byzantine origin and Orthodox faith, bearing the name Damalas, and who appear as early as 1230 in the Thracesian Theme of the Eastern Roman Empire. Descendants of these Greek families also settled on Chios and other nearby regions, and are often confused with the Genoese-descended Zaccaria de Damalà.
Origins and Genoese Lordships (1267–1346)
Settlement in Byzantium
The family's presence in the Aegean began with Admiral Benedetto I Zaccaria, who first established the family's influence in the region with his elder brother, Manuele Zaccaria, when they received the Lordship of Phocaea in 1267, obtaining the region's alum mines. Benedetto subsequently cemented his status by marrying a sister of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1275 and securing the Lordship of Chios in 1304. Following this union, the dynasty formally fused their Genoese identity with imperial legitimacy. Benedetto I's son, Benedetto II, formally adopted the name Palaiologos, seen in legal acts of 1311 and 1316, as "Benedictus Paleologus Zaccaria." This dynastic identity was propagated through their coinage; silver issues from the Chios mint bore the legend "P 7 B Z", interpreted as "Paleologus & Benedictus Zacharia." The family further asserted this identity through their heraldry, marshalling the Zaccaria and Palaiologos arms. While ruling as independent monarchs, they maintained the diplomatic fiction of being "SERVI IMPERATORIS" on their currency, balancing their autonomy with their claim to imperial blood.The Acquisition of Damalà
The dynasty's expansion into mainland Greece began in 1311, following the death of Renaud de la Roche at the Battle of Halmyros. In the aftermath of this defeat, Benedetto II became the suzerain of the Barony of Damalà, acting as the guardian of Renaud's underage heiress, Jacqueline de la Roche. This arrangement was solidified into a hereditary possession in the 1320s, when Benedetto's son, Martino Zaccaria, 3rd Lord of Chios, married the de la Roche heiress, merging the founding dynasty of the Duchy of Athens with the Zaccaria.According to the Chronicle of the Morea, the original baronies were twelve, including Veligosti , whose fief was the argolid region of Damalà. After the fall of Veligosti around 1300, Damalà would become the seat of the barony, by then ruled by the Zaccaria.
The dynastic attachment to the "Damalà" title was such that Martino minted a specific issue of tornese coins bearing the legend "+ CCASTE DAMALA", separate from his Chian currency. This coinage, dated between 1325 and 1329, marks the first physical evidence of the Zaccaria fusing their Aegean sovereignty with the mainland Damalà title.
Martino had four sons, Bartolomeo with his first, Venetian, Ghisi wife, and Centurione, Octaviano, and Manfredo with his second wife, Jacqueline de la Roche. Bartolomeo died in 1334, and though he had a daughter, Marulla, according to the Assizes of Romania, the Zaccaria family, as Latins in Frankish Greece, observed Salic Law which only allowed for male succession in their fiefdoms.
Thus his eldest brother Centurione succeeded him as Baron of Damalà; held by Bartolomeo since 1317. He was also given control of his father's other possessions in the Morea, sometime during Martino's imprisonment for having broken with Constantinople. This began the dynastic struggle of the Achaean baronies on the death of Philip of Taranto; the Latin Emperor ruling as Prince of Achaea. By supporting Robert of Taranto, son of titular Latin Emperor Philip II, Centurione obtained the recognition of his position and the confirmation of his rights, which had been violated several times in the past by the Angevin princes.
Martino had continued the system of alliances through the marriages of his children. Bartolomeo married Guglielma Pallavicini, who had brought the Marquisate of Bodonitsa as a dowry. Centurione married a daughter of the epitropos of Morea, Andronikos Asen, son of Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen III and Irene Palaiogina. This Asenina lady brought to Centurione the regions of Lysarea and Maniatochorion. Through this marriage, the descendants of Centurione also professed to be descended from the major aristocratic families of Constantinople, such as the Palaiologoi, while holding ties with the Kantakouzenoi, as empress Irene Asenina, sister of the Asenina of Centurione was married to John VI Kantakouzenos, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. After the union of Centurione and this Asenina lady, the Zaccaria started to practice Orthodox-rite weddings until the time of John Asen Zaccaria.
Imperial Service and the Crusade of Smyrna
After spending eight years in captivity for siding with the Latin Emperor over the Byzantine Emperor in 1329, Martino was released from his imprisonment. This was only permissible upon the condition that he swear an oath to remain in Genoa, through the intervention of Pope Benedict XII and Philip VI of France in 1337. He swore to never again, by word or deed, oppose the empire. He was then treated favorably by the emperor though, whom gave him a naval command as protocomes, as well as a few castles as compensation for his losses. This command would be succeeded by his second son Centurione.The Pope, who had considered the Emperor's ejection of Martino from Chios to be a breach of faith and a usurpation, and the imprisonment to be "contrary to God and justice," then intervened in Martino's favour. He ruled that Martino's oath was not binding, because it had been extracted, not at Martino's free will, but “by the force of imprisonment,” and he, therefore, ordered the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople to release Martino and his warrantors from their oath.
This papal letter to the Patriarch was dated 1343. Two years earlier, Hugh IV, King of Cyprus, and the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John had appealed to the Doge of Venice and to the Pope, Benedict XII, for aid in a Crusade against the Turks. Benedict seems to have been unenthusiastic, but Clement V became Pope in May 1342, and he was more willing to consider the proposal.
The situation was complicated at this time because the Turk Oumour of Smyrna was an ally of John VI Cantacuzene, who had usurped the Byzantine throne in 1341, while the Ottoman emir, Ourkhan, supported the Regent Anne, mother of the legitimate Emperor John V. Anne wrote to the Pope in 1343, appealing for aid against Oumour. The Pope answered this combined appeal by preparing a fleet consisting of ships from Cyprus, Venice and the Knights of St. John and on 16 September 1343 placed Martino in command.
The family gained imperial favor once again, with Martino leading this crusade on behalf of the Byzantines to retake coastal lands of Anatolia. On 17 January 1345, while attending a victory Mass at the Cathedral of St. John in Smyrna, the church was stormed by Turkish troops. Martino was killed at the altar and beheaded, his head presented to Umur Pasha as a trophy.
Expulsion from Chios
Upon his father's death, Centurione inherited his father's one-half of the barony of Chalandritsa, the naval command of protocomes, and the fortresses of Stamira and Lysaria, while already possessing the title to the barony of Damalà since 1334. These improved relations with the Byzantines were cultivated by Centurione, and with his return to Chios as protocomes, he reclaimed his paternal estates and jointly exploited the lands of Chios and Phocea with a few other Genoese nobles, from the Ziffo, Corressi, Argenti, and Agelasto families, whom the emperor had entrusted.
Imperial rule in Chios was brief, and in 1346, a chartered company controlled by the Giustiniani called "Maona di Chio e di Focea" was set up in Genoa to reconquer and exploit Chios and the neighboring cities New and Old Phocaea in Asia Minor. Although the inhabitants firmly rejected an initial offer of protection, the island was invaded by a Genoese fleet led by Admiral Simone Vignoso.
The Quintet Lords of the island did not wait for the arrival of the diplomats, sent by the Empress Anna to negotiate with those under Vignoso. They mounted a resistance to the siege but, after several months, were forced to surrender the island to prevent starvation due to a naval blockade. Prior to the formalized surrender, drafted by an "I.N. of Agios Nikolaos", Centurione escaped with a few of his sailors and headed for friendly territory in New Phocaea.
Upon the surrender of Chios on 12 September 1346, a treaty was signed by the governing quintet, minus Centurione, on behalf of the island. This included amnesty for Centurione, referred to as Damala, and the group of men who had sailed with him to New Phocaea. When Centurione did not return to Chios, Vignoso sailed to New Phocaea and secured its surrender on 20 September 1346. The treaty forbade the Zaccaria from residing, owning property, or interfering in the governance of both Phocaeas, putting a definitive end to their influence there.
The "protocomes Damalla" and an Argenti signed the treaty of New Phocaea as the Genoese with interests in the city before the invasion. Like the first, the second treaty did not explicitly prohibit the Zaccaria from remaining in Chios. While it is certain that Centurione and his immediate family left the island at this time, some members evidently stayed behind, as a "Jane Zaccaria" is recorded as a witness to a property sale on 14 June 1348.
From then, Centurione lived both in his Barony of Damalà and Galata, where he signed in 1352 as a witness, "the first among the Latins," to the treaty with Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. Displaced from the Aegean, the dynasty's political center of gravity shifted permanently to their mainland possessions in the Peloponnese.