The History of Fiscardo and Kefalonia

by David Barritt

FISCARDO – THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PORT IN GREECE

Fiscardo is one of the most beautiful villages in Greece. It lies in the extreme north of Kefalonia, between the Ionian Sea and a dense forest. It is a an area of such beauty that the Greek parliament has awarded it protected status, ensuring that the forest remains pristine and the traditional Venetian-style architecture of the village unchanged.  Essentially Fiscardo is a cluster of houses around a small harbour. It is strategically located at the entrance to the sea channel between Kefalonia and Ithaca where shipping bound to and from Italy passes. For this reason it has been on a major shipping route between Italy and Greece since sea trade began. A lighthouse has stood in Fiscardo for so long that no-one knows when one was first placed there.

We know that Fiscardo has been intermittently inhabited from Palaeolithic times with curious periods where it seems the area was deserted for many years at a time. One possible reason is that pirates made the area uninhabitable. Pirates have been a perennial problem for Kefalonia which is why so many villages are perched on hillsides away from the sea and in areas not easily accessible or visible from the water.

Today Fiscardo is a chic tourist destination but this is a very recent phenomenon, only 20 years ago Fiscardo was mostly deserted, many of the buildings rotting and the permanent population of fewer than 30 people scrabbling a living fishing and shepherding. Fiscardo owes its present popularity to its beauty. The village lies is on a coast wrinkled with tiny coves lapped by calm, clear water. The forest stretches to the very edges of the sea and the air is so pure that lichens abound on the rocks and boulders that fringe the coves.

Because of its geographic position, Kefalonia has been conquered time and time again by a smorgasbord of invaders who, once having taken possession, treated it as a private fief to be exploited and with little concern for the inhabitants. The island has changed hand by conquest been give as a gift or traded as a bargaining chip. It has never been central to the main course of history but always on the periphery, its destiny decided by whichever large power was in the ascendancy at that particular time. The long list of rulers includes the Romans, the Byzantines, the Normans, the Venetians, the Turks, the Italians, the Germans and the British. Only very recently has it become part of modern Greece. 

For most of recorded history Kefalonia has been a possession that various landlords abused; appropriating its resources neglecting or, more usually, oppressing its people. Even today a researcher would quickly discover a distinct lack of enthusiasm by the locals for wave after wave of rulers, a sentiment that can still be detected about the central government of Greece, which admittedly has failed woefully in providing the islanders with essential services.  Even in 2008, for example, Fiscardo residents have no mains water supply, relying on wells and truck and boat deliveries. The main road between Fiscardo and the rest of the island needs urgent upgrading and although both water and roads are promised every year, progress is slow. 

Archaeological discoveries show that Kefalonia has been inhabited since Palaeolithic times i.e. between 120 000 and 250 000 years ago. The land on which the lighthouse stands is such a rich source of Palaeolithic stone tools that it is still quite common to walk there and stumble across a stone hand axe or scraping tool. 

In antiquity Fiscardo was called Panormos, a fact only confirmed in 2005, ending a debate that lasted for literally thousands of years. There were several candidates for the site of ‘Panormos’ mentioned by ancient historians and although archaeologists and historians believed Fiscardo was a very strong candidate, they could not be sure.  Then, in 2005, construction workers excavating for Fiscardo’s first shopping centre, discovered a plaque on which was inscribed the thanks from the people of Athens to the people of Panormos for allowing them to hunt there. This discovery ended all doubt that Panormos and Fiscardo are one and the same.

One mystery down, countless to go. As in much of Greece, Fiscardo has tantalising ruins that defy explanation. For example, in the forest that lies behind Fiscardo there is a mysterious ruin dating back to the second or third century BC.  No one knows what it was, although archaeologists lean towards the theory that it is the remnant of a temple. Local legend has a more romantic explanation saying it is the site of the throne of the ancient king of Kefalonia, a place where he held court.  Certainly as you approach the ruin, up a short incline, you face a recess carved from the solid rock that seems like an ideal place for a man to sit with his back to the forest, elevated above his courtiers who would sit flanked in two rows beneath him.  But this is fantasy and perhaps the truth will never be known – like so much about

Fiscardo in antiquity there is simply not enough information.

We know much more about Fiscardo in Roman times. Archaeologists have known for a long time that there was a Roman naval station there, but in the light of recent archaeological discoveries, it appears the settlement was more important than previously believed. Remains of houses, a baths complex and a cemetery, all dating to between 146 B.C. and 330 A.D, have been found, mostly as excavations took place for new buildings for the booming tourist trade.  The most significant discovery so far came in late 2006 when a Roman grave complex was uncovered as excavations took place for a new hotel.  Archaeologists described it as the most important find of its kind ever made in the Ionian Islands. Inside the tomb five burial sites were found, including a large vaulted grave and a stone coffin, along with gold earrings and rings, gold leaves that may have been attached to ceremonial clothing, glass and clay pots, bronze artefacts decorated with masks, a bronze lock and copper coins. The tomb had escaped the attentions of grave robbers and remained undisturbed for thousands of years. In a tribute to Roman craftsmanship, when the tomb opened the stone door easily swung open on its stone hinges. Almost next to the tomb a Roman theatre was discovered, so well preserved that the metal joints between the seats were still intact.

It is obvious from these finds that a well-established Roman settlement existed in Fiscardo, but something happened that led to its abandonment. It remains a mystery how the tomb and theatre lay untouched long enough for them to have been buried under vegetation without anyone noticing enough to poke around inside the tomb and loot the gold jewellery.  Does it mean that at one point Fiscardo was uninhabited for so long that nature had enough time to cover the complex?  Or was it that those left behind when the Romans left, respected the tomb and had no use for the theatre and used them as rubbish dumps until they vanished from view?  

In 50 BC Kefalonia was ruled by Gaius Antonius, (died 42 BC) younger brother of the better-known Marcus Antonius, (c.January 14, 83 BC – August 1, 30 BC) a Roman politician and general also known as Mark Anthony. He was an important supporter of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator. After Caesar's assassination, Antony formed an official political alliance with Caeser’s adopted son Octavian. Disagreement between Octavian and Antony erupted into civil war, the Final War of the Roman Republic. In 31 BC. Antony was defeated by Octavian in the naval Battle of Actium, and in a brief land battle at Alexandria. He committed suicide, and his lover, Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, killed herself shortly thereafter.  A village near Fiscardo is today called Markantonata and local legend say it was so named because Marcus Antonius once stayed there with the Egyptian queen.Although no historical evidence exists to support this assertion, it could have some basis in fact.  We know that Anthony sailed to Greece with Cleopatra and the north of Kefalonia could well have be on their route, particularly given that Marcus Antonius’s brother governed the island.  What is certain that Markantonata is a beautiful and romantic place – ideal for a tryst between a Roman general and an Egyptian queen.

Fiscardo owes its present name to a colourful and enormously successful Norman mercenary called Robert Guiscard. Guiscard is a classic story of a poor boy made good. He was one of several brothers who went to Italy from Normandy in the 11th Century to work as mercenaries and to seek their fortunes. Forty years after leaving Normandywith only five mounted riders, and thirty followers on foot, he had founded a sovereign state and become one of the most important people in Christendom. Two emperors had to reckon with him. From one he took Rome, from the other he had been on the point of taking Constantinople.

After arriving in Italy in 1046, he served in several military campaigns before taking the place of his brother Humphrey as Duke of the Normans.  His power steadily grew as he became involved in the politics of both Italy and the Byzantine Empire.  His most famous victory came at the battle of Durazzo on October 1081 where he defeated a Byzantine army. Guiscard went on to become the Duke of Apulia and Calabria and founded the Kingdom of the Two Sicilys. In 1084 Robert Guiscard tried to conquer Kefalonia but he had been ill before the campaign started and he died the following year in the little port, which after his death became known as Guiscardo, eventually corrupted to Fiscardo.

We have a physical description of Guiscard left by the world’s first female historian Byzantine historian Anna Comnena.  She wrote:

“This Robert was Norman by descent, of minor origin, in temper tyrannical, in mind most cunning, brave in action, very clever in attacking the wealth and substance of magnates, most obstinate in achievement, for he did not allow any obstacle to prevent his executing his desire. His stature was so lofty that he surpassed even the tallest, his complexion was ruddy, his hair flaxen, his shoulders were broad, his eyes all but emitted sparks of fire, and in frame he was well-built ... this man's cry it is said to have put thousands to flight. Thus equipped by fortune, physique and character, he was naturally indomitable, and subordinate to no one in the world.”

We also have an account of his death recorded in the Annales Lupi Protospatharii:

“In the month of July, (17 July, 1085, according to the Catholic Encyclopaedia) while the said Duke was staying in the place which is called Vonitsa, after the Venetians had been defeated, and while his army was stationed in Cephalonia (a frequent and acceptable alternative spelling of Kefalonia) in order to take a certain city, while he himself was residing in the said place with a part of his army, preparing to go by sea with a large naval force and an innumerable multitude of soldiers to the Royal City [Constantinople], by the command of God, almighty and most merciful, who reproves and brings to naught the thoughts and plans of princes which do not proceed from his own, the Duke died of flux.” (Flux is an archaic word for dysentery.)

After Guiscard’s death, according to the historian Geoffrey Malaterra, the duke's widow Sichelgaita, his son Roger and the other barons “carried out his funeral ceremonies with the proper honours. They brought his body back across the sea and buried it at Venosa.”

PRE-HISTORY

It is certain that Kefalonia was inhabited during the Palaeolithic period and tombs have been discovered showing that, uniquely among the Ionian Islands, Kefalonia thrived around 1600 BC - during the Mycenaean period. There are two theories as to why Kefalonia should have prospered when the other Ionian Islands did not; one is it was because of significant corn production on the island and Kefalonia's commercial contacts with Ithaca and the town of Nidri, in Lefkada. The second is that Kefalonia was introduced to the Mycenaean civilization by emigrants to the southern Peloponnese, western Greece and Attica. This is supported by similar archaeological findings in these areas.

HOW KEFALONIA GOT ITS NAME

According to one legend, the island was named after Kefalines ruler of Kefalanes, a nation in western Greece but according to Greek mythology Kefalonia was named after Kefalos (Cephalus) who was a mixture of two mythical people and a direct ancestor of Greece’s greatest hero, Odysseus. According to Wikipedia, one Cephalus was an Athenian, son of Hermes and Herse. The other Cephalus was an Aeolian, the son of Deioneus (or Deion), ruler of Phocis, and Diomede. Cephalus married Procris, a daughter of Erectheus but Eos, the Goddess of Dawn, kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting and the pair became lovers. She bore him a son named Phaëthon (not to be confused with the son of the sun-god Helios). Some sources also say Tithonos and Hesperus are the children of Cephalus and Eos. However, after some years, Cephalus began pining for Procris, causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her putting a curse on them when she did so. Procris had come into possession of a magical javelin, given to her by Artemis that never missed its target and a hunting hound (named Laelaps) that always caught its prey. The hound met its end chasing a fox (the Teumessian vixen) which could not be caught; both fox and the hound were turned into stone. But the javelin continued to be used by Cephalus who was an avid hunter.

Although Cephalus and Procris were reconciled, Procris remained suspicious of her husband’s fidelity. Cephalus sat by a tree one day, hot after hunting, and sang a little hymn to the wind (Aura). A passerby heard him and thought he was serenading a lover. Procris found out and the next day went to find him. As he sat singing the same hymn, she thought he was singing to his ex-lover Eos and she moved. Cephalus, hearing a stirring in the brush and thinking the noise came from an animal, threw the never-erring javelin in the direction of the sound - and Procris was impaled. As she lay dying in his arms, she told him "On our wedding vows, please never marry Eos". Cephalus, distraught at the death of Procris, went into exile. Later, Cephalus helped Amphitryon of Mycenae in a war against the Taphians and Teleboans. He was rewarded with the island of Samos, today known as Kefalonia which then became known by his name.

Cephalus eventually married again, choosing a daughter of Minyas to be his wife. This woman (named Clymene, according to some sources) bore him a son named Arceisius. Cephalus never forgave himself for the death of Procris, and he eventually committed suicide by leaping from Cape Leucas into the sea. Arceisius succeeded Cephalus as ruler of Kefalonia and became Odysseus’s grandfather.

Odysseus is the most famous figure associated with Kefalonia. He is the subject of The Odyssey, an epic poem attributed to Homer which recounts Odysseus’s wanderings when, as the king of Ithaca, he attempted to return home after the Trojan war, a war in which he played a pivotal role according to ‘Homer’s’ other masterpiece The Iliad. There is heated debate among historians about whether Odysseus was real or legendary with most coming down on the side of him being a fantasy figure, analogous to Britain’s King Arthur.  Most of them concede though that some historical figures and events found their way into the two poems and so the more romantic among us can still legitimately believe in Odysseus and his kingdom. It is worth pointing out that, even if the events recounted by ‘Homer’ really took place, they were not recorded until 450 later so things could have got confused in the interim. In spite of a series of searches, no trace of Odysseus’s palace has ever been found.  An increasingly popular view is that the fabled kingdom of Odysseus was on Kefalonia and that the island today named Ithaca had another name in antiquity. 

ANTIQUITY
Herodotus is the first historian to refer to the island by the name of Kefalinia, while Thucydides called the island Tetrapoli (Four Cities), because of the towns of Pali, Sami, Kranea (also known as Krani) and Proni, which thrived during the Mycenaean years. The most significant city was Sami, on the north-eastern part of the island. Pali was situated on the western peninsula, in the location of Palaiokastro; Krani was situated by the lagoon of Koutavos where Argostoli stands today; and Proni was situated on the south eastern part of the island. The four cities were independent of one another with separate coins and regimes. The inhabitants of the islands worshipped the Olympian Gods and performed sacrifices to them in temples. Hesiod, an early Greek poet, who is believed to have lived around 700 AD,refers to the temple of Ainios Zeus on Mount Aino, while the existence of a second temple of Zeus is also mentioned on an islet south of Kefalonia.

Kefalonia participated in the Persian Wars, in the battle of Plataies (479 BC) and in the Peloponnesian War, supporting both Sparta and Athens, as each city supported its political preference. In 218 BC, King Philip from Macedonia attacked the island in an attempt to occupy it, but Athens helped the Kefalonians defeat him.

THE ROMAN ERA

In 188 BC Rome conquered Kefalonia. Livy’s account tells how a Marcus Fulvius, sailed to Kefalonia, and asked the various cities in the island which they preferred - surrender to the Romans or war. All the cities surrendered and gave Rome hostages as guarantees of good behaviour. Then Sami had a change of heart, reasoning that because their city occupied an advantageous position, the Romans might compel them to live elsewhere. Livy wrote: “Whether this was an invention on their part, and their breach of the peace was due to imaginary fears, or whether the matter had been talked about amongst the Romans and so come to their ears, is quite uncertain. “What is certain is that after giving hostages they closed their gates, and though the consul sent these hostages to the walls to appeal to the sympathies of their fellow-citizens and kinsmen, they refused to abandon their opposition. As no peaceable reply was given, the siege of the city was begun.”

At first the Romans used battering rams to try and break down Sami’s walls, when stout resistance was encountered the Roman equivalent of sharp-shooters were called in. A hundred expert slingshot marksmen were imported who effectively prevented the defenders from making sorties to destroy the battering rams.  Even so it was four months before the city fell. The story has a very sad ending because the Romans sold the entire population into slavery.

Once having conquered Kefalonia the Romans proceeded to largely neglect the island and its people. As a result pirates considered the place fair game and murdered and pillaged to such effect that the population shrank and economic activity declined, a pattern that was to be repeated by wave after wave of conquerors.

In 124 or 125 AD, the Roman emperor Hadrian, a noted hellenophile who planned a resurgence of Greece, although a Greece firmly under Roman control, gave the island as a present to Athens. This resulted in an economic resurgence, particularly in the area around Sami.   

THE BYZANTINE ERA

Kefalonia remained a possession of the Roman Empire for the next thousand years, the last 700 years or so under the banner of the Byzantine Empire, a term used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople. During much of its history it was known to many of its Western contemporaries as the Empire of the Greeks because of the dominance of Greek language, culture and population. To its inhabitants, the Empire was simply the Roman Empire and its emperors continued the unbroken succession of Roman emperors.

There is no consensus on exactly when the Byzantine period of Roman history began. Many consider Emperor Constantine I(reigned AD 306–337) to be the first Byzantine Emperor. It was he who moved the imperial capital in 324 AD from Nicomedia to Byzantium, refounded as Constantinople, or Nova Roma ("New Rome").  In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine inaugurated his new capital, the process of hellenisation and increasing Christianisation was already under way. The Empire is generally considered to have ended after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

During the Byzantine era Kefalonia belonged to the Byzantine emperor and the island was ruled by a strategos who reported directly to him.

In the 10th Century AD, Emperor Constantine VII wrote that the island was part of the "Scheme of Kefalonia", which was established by his father Leo VI. It was in this period that hierarchical social classes started to form on the island namely: workers, tradesmen and nobility.

THE FRANK YEARS

During Byzantine Kefalonia was constantly under threat from raids by Arabs, Normans, pirates and Crusaders, although the latter could barely be distinguished from pirates. The latter part of Byzantine rule was extremely turbulent with Kefalonia rapidly changing hands time and time again.

The beginning of the end for Byzantine rule in Kefalonia was when the powerful Norman warlord Robert Guiscard attempted to occupy the island in 1084. After fierce fighting the islanders repulsed Guiscard.  Guiscard had been in poor health when he began the campaign and he died in Fiscardo in 1085. His death brought the islanders a brief respite, as historian Geoffrey Malaterra wrote: “Freed by the departure of its enemies, Greece rejoiced in peace.”  Not for long, because Guiscard’s son Roger Borsa, Duke of Apulia, who had accompanied his father on the Kefalonian campaign http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemund_I_of_Antioch - _note-0#_note-0 took violent revenge against those who had resisted his father, although he did not manage to conquer the island.

Kefalonia formally remained a Byzantine possession although one much ravaged by the Normans and the Crusaders, who attacked the island in 1103 and again in 1125. The island was occupied by the Normans between 1147 and 1149 after being captured by forces of King Roger ll of Sicily (22 December 1095 – 26 February 1154 under the command ofGeorge of Antioch (died 1151 or 1152). Kefalonia was not the focal point of Norman attacks. George set sail from Otranto with 70 galleys to assault Corfu. According to Nicetas Choniates, a Byzantine Greek historian, the island capitulated thanks to George's bribes (and the tax burden of the imperial government), welcoming the Normans as their liberators. Leaving a garrison, George sailed on to the Peloponnese. He sacked Athens and quickly moved on to the other Ionian Islands among them Kefalonia. He ravaged the coast along Euboea and the Gulf of Corinth and penetrated as far as Thebes, where he pillaged the silk factories and carried off the Jewish damask, brocade, and silk weavers, taking them back to Palermo where they formed the basis for the Sicilian silk industry. George capped the expedition with a sack of Corinth, in which the relics of Saint Theodore were stolen, and then returned to Sicily.

This occupation of Kefalonia was ended in 1149 when the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos, (November 28, 1118– September 24, 1180), defeated the Normans with the help of the Venetians. Once again Corfu was the primary focus and Manuel dispatched 500 galleys, 1,000 transports, and between 20 000 and 30 000 men to recover the island.Kefalonia seems to have been taken as an afterthought, once again its fortunes turning on the ambitions of the then superpowers.

Encouraged by his success in the Ionian Islands, Manuel dreamed of restoration of the Roman Empire at the cost of union between the Orthodoxand Catholic Churches, a prospect which would frequently be offered to the Pope during negotiations and plans for alliance. If there was ever a chance of reuniting the eastern and western churches, this was probably the most favourable moment. The Papacywas never on good terms with the Normans, except when under duress by the threat of direct military action. Having the "civilised" Eastern Roman Empire on its southern border was infinitely preferable to the Papacy than having to constantly deal with the troublesome Normans of Sicily. It was in Pope Hadrian IV's interests to reach a deal if at all possible, since doing so would greatly increase his own influence over the entire Orthodox Christian population. Manuel offered a large sum of money to the Pope for the provision of troops, with the request that the Pope grant the Byzantine emperor lordship of three maritime cities in return for assistance in expelling the Norman William from Sicily. Manuel also promised to pay 5,000 pounds of gold to the Pope and the Curia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_I_Komnenos - _note-W18-2#_note-W18-2 Negotiations were hurriedly carried out, and an alliance was formed between Manuel and Hadrian.  It was at this point, just as the war seemed decided in Manuel's favour that things started to go wrong for him. The Byzantine commander Michael Palaiologos had alienated Byzantium's allies by his attitude, and this had stalled the campaign as Count Robert III of Loritello refused to speak to him. Although the two were reconciled, the campaign had lost some of its momentum: Michael was soon recalled to Constantinople, and his loss was a major blow to the campaign. The turning point was the Battle for Brindisi, where the Sicilians launched a major counter attack by both land and sea. At the approach of the enemy, the mercenaries that had been hired with Manuel's gold demanded huge rises in their pay. When this was refused, they deserted. Even the local barons started to melt away, and soon John Doukas was left hopelessly outnumbered. The arrival of Alexios Komnenos Bryennios with some ships failed to redress the Byzantine situation. The naval battle was decided in the Sicilians' favour, while John Doukas and Alexios Bryennios (along with four Byzantine ships) were captured.[26] Manuel then sent Alexios Axouch to Ancona to raise another army, but, by this time, William had already retaken all of the Byzantine conquests in Apulia. The defeat at Brindisi put an end to the restored Byzantine reign in Italy; a peace treaty was signed and in 1158 the Byzantine army left Italy, and never saw it again.  Kefalonia however, remained in Byzantine hands.

The islanders had a 22 year break from bloodshed until; following the death of Manuel in 1180 the Sicilian King William ll (1155–1189) took advantage of the resulting confusion ands returned to war against the Byzantine Empire. In 1185 an army of 80,000 men including 5,000 knights marched upon Thessalonica, a fleet of 200 ships sailed towards the same target capturing on their way the Ionian islands of Corfu, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. In August Thessalonica fell to the joint attack of the Sicilian fleet and army and was subsequently sacked (7,000 Greeks died).

The leader of William’s naval fleet during the invasion was one Margaritus of Brindisi (circa 1149 – 1197). His role must have been a distinguished one because he was rewarded for his efforts with both Kefalonia and Zakynthos, William making him a Grand Admiral and the first Count Palatine of the ‘County Palatine of Kefalonia and Zakynthos’. This meant that Margaritus was the absolute ruler of the islands although he still owed allegiance to the king of Sicily.

Not bad for someone who, it is believed, started his career as a Greek pirate, before becoming a privateerand then a permanent admiral of the navy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1192 In 1192, he became the first count of Malta. He also held the titles of Prince of Taranto and Duke of Durazzo.  After his death in 1197 his son-in-law inherited the County Palatine of Kefalonia and Zakynthoswhich continued to exist until 1479, as part of the Kingdom of Sicily. 

Following the death of Margaritus three families family in succession ruled the county palatine of Kefalonia and Zakynthos.  First came the Orsinis’, then the Angevins and finally the Toccos.  The Orsini rulers are as follows:

Mateo Orsini was Margaritus’s son-in-law and formally inherited the County Palatine on his death, although it appears that he had actually been ruling the islands earlier than that. The Orsini family’s rule is remembered for its brutality and the impoverishment of the islanders. The Orsini family do not seem to have singled out the islands for special treatment because their family history is bloody one. For example Nicholas Orsini– known inItaly as Nicola d'Epiro), who was Count Palatine of Kefalonia from 1317 to 1323, became ruler of Epirus in 1318 by murdering his uncle Thomas I Komnenos Doukas. To cement control he then married his uncle's widow, Anna Palaiologina. There is a saying that what goes around comes around and in 1323 Nicholas was murdered by his brother John II Orsini who then became Count Palatine of Kefalonia and Zakynthos and ruler of Epirus.  He was to be the last of the Orsinis’ to rule the islands. In 1324 John's Angevin overlord, John of Gravina, stopped at Kefalonia on his way to fight the Byzantines in the Peloponnese and deposed him, annexing the island for himself.

The Angevins ruled for only 32 years.  John of Gravina(1294 – April 5 1336) ruled Kefalonia between 1325 and 1332, being succeeded by Prince Robert of Taranto (1299/1319– September 10, 1364) from 1332to 1357. 

Next came the Tocco family. Once again the machinations that led to their accession are unclear to me. Here’s what I have learned: The first Tocco Count Palatine was Leonardo I.   He was the son of Guglielmo II Tocco, who governed Kefalonia between 1328–1335, when Robert of Taranto was the Count Palatine. I am not sure of the relationship between governor and Count Palatine.  Did the governor report to the Count? How come the governor’s son became the Count?  The Toccos’ certainly had strong family links with the Orsinis’, Guglielmo’s mother was Margherita Orsini, sister of Nicholas Orsini and John II Orsini both previous Count Palatines.  

Here is a list of the Tocco rulers:    

Carlo I succeeded his father Leonardo I as Count of Cephalonia and Duke of Lefkas in 1376. He shared power with his brother Leonardo II, who was given Zakynthos as apanage in 1399.  Although Carlo I had several illegitimate children, when he died on July 4 1429 he was succeeded by his nephew Carlo II Tocco, the son of Leonardo II.

When Carlo II died in October 1448, Leonardo III Tocco, while still a minor, inherited all his titles and possessions. Gradually the warring Ottoman Turks reduced his holdings until he was left with only Kefalonia, Lefkas and Zakynthos.  These the Turks captured in 1479. Leonardo then fled to the Kingdom of Naples, where he was invested with several fiefs by Ferdinand I of Naples. He died in c. 1499.

In a document called the Chronicle of the Tocco family of Kefalonia or the Chronicle of the Tocco'swhich covers the period between 1375-1425, the author describes the Toccos as fair governors, who cared for the rights of their people.  I wouldn’t rely on this as being necessarily a fair reflection of the true state of affairs, the writer was probably paid by the Toccos to write the chronicle and paint the family in a suitably favourable light.

Once again a victim of events in the wider world, the island was soon to get another new ruler.  In 1479, the county palatine was broken up and divided between them by Venice and the Ottoman Turks: Zakynthos became the property of Venice; the Turks got Kefalonia and true to the form of most of the occupiers proceeded to rape the island and its people.  One story tells how Ahmed Pasharaided the island “chopped up all the nobility, burnt the castle of Kefalonia and transported many of the peasants to Constantinople. There, the sultan separated the men from the women and forced the men to marry women from Ethiopia and vice versa, in order to create a race of people to use as slaves.”

VENETIAN RULE

Turkish rule was short.  In 1500 the Venetians and Spanish violated the peace treaty and attacked and conquered the island. To assist in this process, the Venetians enlisted the support of Kefalonian nobles who were granted a number of privileges in return. The result was a measure of stability which saw Venetian rule last 300 years. Kefalonia was a strategic stepping stone to the east and provided important shelter for the Venetian fleet. Venetian culture influenced architecture, fashion, arts, music, letters, education, health systems and laws. It was also the Venetians who were responsible for planting many of the olive trees still to be found on the island by rewarding islanders with money for each tree planted.Under the Venetians the nobles prospered while the common people lived in poverty and constant fear of pirates.  It seems they had good reason to be fearful because in one instance alone a Turkish pirate called Hairedin Barbarossa attacked Kefalonia in 1538 and took 13000 of its people as slaves. Even so there must have been some attractions to living on the island because Kefalonia gradually attracted settlers from the Greek mainland in such numbers that the island developed a strong identification with Greece that exists until today. 

During the last years of Venetian Rule, there were severe disputes between the rich families of the island which led to bitter vendettas that resulted in considerable bloodshed. Venetian Rule ended on 28 June 1797 when troops of Napoleonic France occupied the island.

A SERIES OF RULERS

French rule of the Ionian Islands became official with the Treaty of Campo Formio on 17 October 1797 and the islands became part of the French State on 1 November that year.Napoleon promised liberation for the Ionian Islandsand in a telling gesture publicly burnt in Argostoli’s square amid much celebration by the local people,the Libro d'oro, a book created by the Venetians listing the names and the privileges of the nobles. Soon however, and despite several progressive measures adopted by the French administration, the population became alienated because of heavy taxation and the undisciplined behaviour of French soldiers. This discontent was used as an excuse by a joint Russian-Ottoman force under Admiral Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov, the most illustrious Russian naval commander and admiral of the 18th century, to oust the French from the Ionian. In 1800 an allied fleet of Russians, Turks and English defeated the French at Abū Qīr.  In a treaty signed in Constantinople, the Septinsular Republic was established in the Ionian Islands under nominal Ottoman sovereignty. In Kefalonia a government was formed headed by K. Horafas. It was the first time Greeks had been granted even limited self-government since the fall of the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in the mid-15thcentury. In practice the Republic existed as a Russian protectorate. In Kefalonia political power such as it was, was exercised through a senate membership of which was restricted to the aristocracy, which led to discontent among the other islanders.

In the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit, the islands were again ceded by Russia to Napoleon's French Empire, and incorporated in the Illyrian provinces.  

ENGLISH OCCUPATION

On October 2 1809 the British defeated the French fleet in Zakynthos and captured Kefalonia, Kythera and Zakynthos. The British took Lefkada in 1810. With the Treaty of Paris the "United States of the Ionian Islands" was formed and the Ionian Islands placed under the command of a British Lord High Commissioner. Altogether 17 British governors were to rule Kefalonia and under their rule a considerable infrastructure was created.  Kefalonians have never been fond of their rulers but acknowledge that of the 17 one man stands out for his obvious desire to help the islanders. He was Sir Charles James Napier(1782-1853). After a distinguished military career Napier was appointed governor of Kefalonia in 1822, where he remained for eight years as governor and military resident. He built roads, a  courthouse, a library and offered mainland Greece supportin the war of independence against the Ottoman Empire, despite Britain's official opposition. His affection for the island was such that he named his daughter Emily Kefalonia.

It is said that the sea-side area called Lassi, near to Argostoli, a now a major tourist destination, was named by Sir Charles because he said the area was as ‘bonny as a lassie’.  Lassie being a Scots word for a girl.

In 1827 Napierquarrelled with Sir Frederick Adam, the new high commissionerof the Ionian Islands, and in 1830, when Napier was in England on leave, Adam seized his papers and forbade him to return. Napier thereupon, refusing promotion to the residency of Zakynthos, retired in disgust, living for some years in the south of England and, after the death of his wife in 1833, in Normandy.

One of the most famous supporters of the Greek War of Independence, Lord Byron, visited the island in the early 1820s. and while living at Metaxata he composed Don Juan.

Yet another constitution, the Constitution of 28 December 1817, imposed a series of unpopular measures and led to a series of insurrections.

UNION WITH GREECE

PhotoAlthough Kefalonia remained under English rule, the islanders actively participated in the Greek revolution against Turkish rule. Constantinos and Andreas Metaxas, Gerasimos and Dionissios Fokas, Demetrios Hoidas, Gerasimos Orfanos and Loukas Valsamakis were among the freedom fighters from Kefalonia. The most significant event in which Kefalonia participated was the battle of Lalas, in Helia. There, with the help of the Peloponnesian army, Andreas and Constantinos Metaxas defeated the Turks who invaded the village on 24 June 1821.

 

 

 

On 14 September 1848, in the light of popular demand, Ionian Commissioner John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton,granted the islanders significant privileges. Another series of insurrections forced Queen Victoria to proclaim elections in 1850, after which the first Parliament was established. In November 1858 the British appointed William Ewart Gladstone as High Commissioner Extraordinary to determine the political future of the Ionian Islands. He recommended the Ionian Islands remain under British protection. However, when the Bavarian-born King of Greece, Otto I, was deposed and replaced by an Anglophile, George I, the Ionian Islands were ceded to Greecein the London Protocol which states "The islands, Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Lefkas, Ithaca, Kythira, Paxos and the other little ones are united with the kingdom of Greece in order to be its part forever, in one and only state.On 23 September 1863, the Ionian Parliament voted in favour of union with Greece and on 21 May 1864, Thrasivoulos Zaimis officially received the Ionian Islands from Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Storcks. 

WORLD WAR I

Greeceremained neutral during World War l but this did not stop the Entente powers occupying Kefalonia along with Corfu and Milos, on the grounds that the Greek government was following a pro-Axis policy.

World War ll

At the beginning of World War ll the prime minister of Greece was a Kefalonian, Ioannis Metaxas was premier from 1936 until his death in 1941. Metaxas has been described as a quasi fascist whose policy was to keep Greece out of the war and to have strong economic ties to Nazi Germany.  However the Italian dictator Mussolini had expansionist ambitions and after conquering Albania turned his attentions to Greece. Metaxes won a place in the Greek pantheon of heroes on October 28th 1940 when Mussolini sent his minister in Athens to Metaxas with a written ultimatum demanding the Greeks let the Italian army enter and occupy the country or face their wrath. Metaxasrejectedthe ultimatum and a few hours later Italian troops pouredinto northern Greece from Albania.Metaxas’srejection of the Italian ultimatum is celebrated every year in Greece as a national holiday on October 28th as 'Ochi Day'. (Ochi means 'No').

After a brief period of success, the Italian offensive which had been poorly coordinated was repelled by a relentless Greek counterattack. This resulted in the loss of one-quarter of Italian-controlled Albania. The Italian forces in Albania were stalled, and Mussolini asked Germany for assistance. Hitler soon committed forces to the Balkans in opposition to the Allies who hurried to defend Greece.

Kefalonia was occupied by Axis powers first by the Italians in 1941 and then by the Germans in 1943.

Until late 1943, the occupying force was predominantly Italian -- the Acqui division plus Navy personnel totalled 12,000 men -- but about 2,000 troops from Nazi Germany were also present. The island was largely spared the fighting, until the armistice with Italy concluded by the Allies in September 1943which resulted in Italy changing sides. The German high command issued an order on September 15, 1943 explaining what should be done with disarmed Italian soldiers. The motto was simply: “Whoever is not with us is against us.” Three groups were distinguished: first, those who were loyal to the alliance and continued to fight alongside Germany; second, those who no longer wanted to fight; third, soldiers who aided the resistance or had entered into a pact with the enemy. The officers of the last group were to be shot, and the rest were to be used as workers, or else deported to the Eastern Front.

On Kefalonia many of the Italians were hoping to return home, but German forces did not want the Italians' munitions to be used eventually against them; Italian forces were hesitant to turn over weapons for the same reason. As German reinforcements headed to the island the Italians dug in and, eventually, after a referendum among the soldiers as to surrender or battle, they fought against the new German invasion. The fighting came to a head at the siege of Argostoli, where the Italians held out. Ultimately the German forces prevailed, taking full control of the island, On September 18, 1943, the German high command overrode the order of September 15, and ordered that no more prisoners be taken on Kefalonia. As a result 5170of the 9000surviving Italian soldiers were executed as a reprisal by German forces. In all 9,500 Italian soldiers lost their lives on Kefalonia.

Other prisoners were transferred to the mainland in overcrowded ships that were not marked as prisoner of war transports. Another 13,288 Italians died when enemy fire sunk the ships, and the Germans refused to initiate any rescue procedures.

Irene Vrionis from Fiscardo, who was a young woman during the war perhaps summed up the islanders’ feelings during that time when she told me:  “first the Italians came … and they were invaders but somehow it was all right, they were like us, they helped in the fields, it wasn’t so bad…then the Germans came and it was terrible.”

Throughout the war, the people of Kefalonia were actively involved in the Greek Resistance.  This period is the subject of a famous book by English author Louis de Bernières titled Captain Corelli’s Mandolin which was subsequently made into asuccessful movie, sparking a minor tourist boon to the hitherto completely unspoiled island

The war ended in central Europe in 1945butKefalonia remained in a state of conflict because of the Greek Civil War in which communists and non-communists fought for control of the country. With heavy backing from first the British and then the Americans, the non-communists prevailed and peace returned to Greece and the island in 1949. The civil war is a pivotal event in modern Greek history because victory cemented the nation into the capitalist Western alliance of which Greece is now a leading member.  

The Great earthquake of 1953

Kefalonia is just to the east of a major tectonic fault, where the European plate meets the Aegean plate at a slip boundary – a similar situation to the more famous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Andreas_Fault San Andreas Fault in California.  Because of its geographic location Kefalonia frequently experiences earth tremors.  In August 1953, a series of four earthquakes hit the island causing widespread destruction throughout the island, the only exception being Fiscardo. The third and most destructive of the earthquakes took place on August 12, 1953 at 11:24 and had a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale. The epicentre of the quake was directly below the southern tip of the island. As a result of this quake the entire island rose by 60 centimetres, coastal rocks around the island clearly display marks where the previous water level had been. 

Earthquake damage was estimated at tens of millions of Euros; however the worst damage was to the economy. The Kefalonian economy literally collapsed and it is estimated that 100,000 of the population of 125,000 left the island soon after the earthquake, driven away by economic hardship. Many of the 365 villages on the island before the quake were deserted forever as Kefalonians moved in droves to Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States and Zimbabwe. The island entered a period of poverty where a small population survived by subsistence farming and fishing. It is only the relatively recent influx of tourists that ended this poverty.  Even today it is possible to find ruined villages whose entire inhabitant left the island after the earthquake.

Greece joined the European Community on January 1, 1981 Greece’s entry into the European Union has been a boon to Kefalonia with EU funds helping to create an infrastructure.  EU regulations entitling any EU citizen to own property in Greece has also created a minor boom with a steady trickle of mostly British buyers purchasing holiday homes on the island.  The Greek economy has been growing continuously since 1994 and above the EU25 average since 1996. In 2004 the Greek economy grew at an estimated rate of 4.7%, the fastest in the EU15. A part of this wassustained by the investment in infrastructure in the run up to the Summer Olympic Games 2004 that were held in Athens. As a result, real incomes have risen from 85% of EU27 average in 1997 to 97% in 2006 (revised data, source Eurostat, Oct 2007)

During the third quarter of 2006, Greece experienced a strong 4.4% growth rate, while in the same period of the previous year, the growth rate was 3.8%. This is among the highest rates in the EU and the Eurozone, where the average growth rates for these periods were estimated to stand as 2.7% and 1.7% respectively.

Selected Bibliography and an explanation

I started this history with the intention of telling those interested in buying property in Kefalonia a little about the island.  When I began researching it I discovered a mountain of contradictions and confusions that have been difficult to unravel.  I am sure that some mistakes continue to exist but I have done my best to be accurate. I guiltily acknowledge that I have not been as diligent as I might have been in listing all my sources. As this is a work in progress I will try to remedy that as I go along. All the sources I did find came via the Internet and I am deeply indebted to Wikipedia and to the Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia

The Annales Barenses and the Annales Lupi Protospatharii: Critical Edition and Commentary, by William Joseph Churchill (University of Toronto PhD dissertation, 1979).

Rudy’s List of Archaic Medical Terms

Livy’s History of Rome Book 38

Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194. Longman: London, 1970.

The Genoese Annals of Ottobuono Scriba (pdf)

Annales Ianuenses Otoboni Scribae, in Annali Genovesi di Caffaro e de' suoi continuatori, ii (1189-1196). ed L. T. Belgrano and C. Imperiale di Sant'Angelo (Fonti per la storia d'Italia, 1902), pp. 38-41, 45-53.

Garufi, C. A. "Margarito di Brindisi, conte di Malta e ammiraglio del re di Sicilia," in: Miscellanea di archeologia, storia e filologia dedicata al prof. Antonino Salinas, Palermo 1907, 273-282.

Online Encyclopedia

Cronaca dei Tocco di Cefalonia; prolegomeni, testo critico e traduzione, by Giuseppe Schirò, Corpus fontium historiae Byzantinae 10. (Rome: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 1975)

Kefalonia, the Wild Isle by JenniferGay

The Napoleon Series

Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural RelationsBy Donald MacGillivray NicolCambridge University

Classic Encyclopaedia

The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and Sicily and of Duke Robert Guiscard his brother. By Geoffrey Malaterra

World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org an article based on two books that appeared in the 1990s: Friedrich Andrae’s Auch Gegen Frauen und Kinder—Der Krieg der Deutschen Wehrmacht Gegen die Zivilbevölkerung in Italien 1943-1945 [Against Women and Children—the German Wehrmacht’s War Against the Civilian Population in Italy, 1943-45] (Piper Verlag München, Zürich, 1994); and Gerhard Schreiber’s Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen in Italien—Täter, Opfer, Strafverfolgung [German War Crimes in Italy—Perpetrators, Victims, Punishment] (Becksche Reihe, Verlag C.H. Beck, München, 1996).