Magnates and their honours · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Leo Chamaretos

The Chamaretos are the leading archon family of Lakedaimon, the town on the site of ancient Sparta and seat of a metropolitan.

Modern accounts of Greece on the eve of the Frankish conquest name Leo Chamaretos as owner of much of Laconia, one of the local magnates who filled the space left by weak imperial government. On 1 January 1200 the family's estates lie in the Eurotas valley round Lakedaimon; there is no evidence that it acted outside imperial authority that winter.

Who he is

Name
Leo Chamaretos (named for the eve of the Frankish conquest; whether he or a kinsman headed the family on 1 January 1200 is not pinned)
Title
Archon (local magnate) of Lakedaimon
Since
not pinned
Born
not pinned
Family
The Chamaretos, an archon family of Lakedaimon (Laconia). No kin are pinned.
Confidence
low

Miller (1908), ch. 1: 'Leon Chamaretos ... owned much of Lakonia' at the time of the conquest; the primary evidence behind this (seals, letters) could not be checked in this run.

Overlord

Alexios III, through the province of Hellas and the Peloponnese

What it holds

  • Estates round Lakedaimon in the Eurotas valley (extent not pinned)
  • Standing among the archontes of Lakedaimon

How it was acquired

Inherited family standing; not pinned.

Allies and rivals

Not pinned for 1200. A natural rival of Sgouros's later expansion and of the Monemvasiot archons.

How things stand that morning

A great landholder inside the imperial province; the town of Lakedaimon and its district answer to the praetor.

Wealth

Land, olives and grain of the Eurotas valley; no figures.

Military

Household men; no castles of his are named for 1200.

Threats

  • Imperial tax officials
  • Rival archons

Where the sources disagree

  • Only one secondary source (Miller 1908) was available in this run; treat the holding as unconfirmed for 1 January 1200.

Evidence: One old synthesis; no dated primary evidence checked.

On the map: Token outline; the family's lands are not mapped in any source.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
  • History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
  • The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
  • The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
  • History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
  • The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.

Sources and studies

  1. W. Miller, The Latins in the Levant (1908), ch. 1 'Greece at the time of the Frankish conquest' (archive.org full text; old but uses Michael Choniates's letters)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.