961 to 1204
After the reconquest of Crete and the harsh reprisals taken against its Arab defenders, the first priority was to build up the defences and administration of the island. As we have noted, Phokas himself had the fortress at Temenos built before he left, with the intention of making it the capital of Crete to replace the largely destroyed Chandax. Although this plan was abandoned, the fortress became one of a chain of defensive fortifications all around the coast. It remains an extremely impressive sight, even in its ruined state. In the end, instead of moving the capital, the defences of Chandax were rebuilt and a major naval base was established at the port. The remains of a Byzantine wall have been discovered in Iraklion, underneath the later Venetian defences.
Given that nobody on the island could remember anything other than Arab rule, the new government also needed to take steps to reestablish loyalty to the empire among the population. Phokas himself established settlements of war veterans from the imperial forces in fertile agricultural areas, which was common practice in medieval times but, in this case, had the added advantage of providing a core population with strong ties to the empire. While the efforts of missionaries like Saint Nikon and Saint Ioannis Xenos (see later in the chapter) helped to renew the Orthodox Church, the establishment of a standing garrison of 1,000 troops helped to increase morale and reduce the chances of further incursions.
Crete was re-established as a theme, with the combined office of governor and military commander based in Chandax, which now became the capital of the island, leaving Gortyn to fall into decline and obscurity. Further reforms towards the end of the eleventh century upgraded the post of governor to that of doukas (duke). The fact that the dukes often came from important aristocratic families in Constantinople, and even from the imperial family, indicates the increasing importance of the island. This makes it somewhat odd that, along with several other Aegean islands, Crete’s defences again seem to have been neglected and, by the 1080s, the naval base at Chandax was severely undermanned. In 1092, the Duke of Crete, Karykes, led a revolt against the emperor, Alexios I. The cause of the revolt is not known, but it is possible that it started as a mutiny in protest at the undermining of the naval garrison. Alternatively, it could have been an attempt at secession, related to a similar revolt in Cyprus. Whatever its causes, the revolt was quickly crushed when an imperial fleet was dispatched to Crete. Even before it landed, the news of its approach panicked Karykes’ supporters, who staged a coup and murdered the duke. In spite of its easy suppression, the revolt did serve as a wake-up call to the imperial authorities, and efforts were made to improve the naval base and establish stronger ties with Constantinople.
According to tradition, Alexios I attempted to consolidate imperial authority on the island by sending twelve archontopoula to Crete, under a chrysovoulo, a binding document sealed in gold by the emperor. Although there is no question about the immigration of aristocratic and royal family members to Crete at that time, doubt has been cast on the authenticity of the actual document. The only manuscript existing is a copy probably written in Venetian times, which could well be a forgery created to give historical validity to the Cretan aristocratic families in their resistance to Venetian rule. What is certain is that, between 1081 and 1185, many grants of land and posts were made to the archons, who developed into a powerful landowning class. Descendants of the twelve people named in the document were to play an important role in Cretan history for several hundred years, and many villages and streets are named after them. As the Explore Crete website delightfully puts it:
So, if during your travels around Crete you come across someone that claims to be a descendant from nobility, don’t dismiss the claim, there may be some truth and a long and interesting story behind it.1
Generally, this remained a period of peace and stability on the island, with a strong economy and a flourishing trade in agricultural products and livestock. As far as we know, artistic achievement during this period was pretty well limited to the architecture, manuscripts and frescoes of the Church. Unfortunately, there are not many examples remaining, but those that can be found point to considerable talent in all three disciplines. About nine manuscripts have been identified as being of Cretan origin, all of them of a high quality of workmanship, including an illustrated copy of the Gospels. Although generally in a poor state of preservation, there are a few frescoes from the eleventh century, the earliest probably being in the katholikon (main church) of Ioannis Xenos’ monastery at Myriokephala. Generally, the Cretan frescoes of this period are painted in a style very similar to that of Constantinople, perhaps indicating immigration of artists and builders from the imperial capital. In the early twelfth century, trade with Venice increased and, significantly, Venetian merchants began to take an interest in the island.
Although we do not know the extent of conversions to Islam during the Cretan Emirate, it is certain that the Arab occupation considerably weakened the Orthodox Church and left it leaderless and in a state of decline. In the late tenth century, a somewhat biased Byzantine historian, Leo the Deacon, described the situation forcefully:
The Cretans are said to be addicted to divination, ribaldry and wrongful beliefs, which they learned of old from the Manichaeans and from Muhammad.2
Just as the primary political aim at this time was the strengthening of ties between the island and Constantinople, so it was essential to reestablish close links between the Cretan Church and the Patriarchate. At the administrative level, the archdiocese of Crete was reinstated, but with its seat now in Chandax. The organisation of the island remained similar to that before the Arab conquest, but with some new dioceses and changes to jurisdiction to match demographic changes. A new cathedral dedicated to Saint Titus was built in Chandax, on the same site as the present-day church in Iraklion.
The restoration of morale and good practice among the faithful was a more difficult task, but there seems to have been no great effort to send missionaries from Constantinople. It is largely down to two private initiatives that the Church eventually returned to its flourishing condition of before the invasion. According to tradition, Saint Nikon Metanoeite (the latter part of his name literally meaning “Repent!”) visited Crete in 962 and stayed seven years, visiting all parts of the island, founding many new churches and trying to bring back to the fold the many Christians whose faith and practice had been corrupted “by time and long fellowship with the Saracens”.3 He met quite a lot of opposition from the Cretans, who felt he was interfering in their concerns. He therefore wisely changed his tactics from passionate calls for repentance to discussion, gentle persuasion and setting his own example. In The Life of Saint Nikon, written not long after his death, the success of his method is described:
Their passion quickly abated and their furious anger came to a standstill ... [He] if not through the peace of his word, but through that of virtue, was a wise fisherman and skilled in hunting souls of men.4
Although Saint Nikon had a well-deserved reputation for church building on mainland Greece, no churches built by him have been identified in Crete, and there are no other references to the saint’s visit to the island in contemporary literature. This has led some scholars to doubt the accuracy of the story. It has been argued that The Life of Saint Nikon is hagiography rather than history, embellishments being quite common in the genre of written “lives” of saints. After the reconquest by Phokas, Crete was very much a hot topic, and the brief mention of Nikon’s visit to the island may have been added to enhance the saint’s importance.
There is more certainty surrounding the indefatigable and charismatic Saint Ioannis Xenos (the latter part of his name meaning “stranger”). He is known to have been born in Messara, probably in 970. Although his natural leaning was towards solitude and the life of a hermit, he felt inspired to participate in the revival of the Orthodox Church on the island. Besides being an intensely spiritual man, Ioannis was extremely practical and, as well as preaching widely – mainly in western Crete – he founded and organised many monastic communities. His first monastery was at Myriokephala, south-west of Rethymnon, which became the father house of eight more in the area. With the support, either tacit or active, of the local imperial and church authorities, and helped by loyal supporters he called philochristoi (friends of Christ), he set up support mechanisms to ensure the survival of the monks. He seems to have been a man of wide-ranging interests and talents: among his more practical activities were the acquisition of land and draught animals, the construction of water cisterns in dry areas, the planting of trees, vines and gardens, the construction of living quarters for the monks and the setting up of beehives. He was popular among the local people and this made it easy for him to inspire them to provide household goods for the monks:
The way he behaved towards local people, the way he respected them and the way he organised everything with clarity, integrity and honesty made people trust him and follow him.5
In order to strengthen the position of his various foundations, he visited Constantinople in about 1025, where he obtained a chrysovoulo (a binding document sealed in gold) from the emperor, guaranteeing an annual income for Myriokephala. From the patriarch he obtained a foundation charter granting exemption of the monastery from ecclesiastical taxes, and independence from any lay or ecclesiastical officials. All this was a pretty substantial achievement, but the everpractical Ioannis also returned to Crete with gifts of monks’ habits, sacred books and vessels, and icons for distribution among the monasteries. He continued to travel and set up monasteries and churches, until he finally seemed to have found the solitude he craved on the west coast of the island, near Kissamos. There is some evidence that he built with his own hands the little chapel where he found sanctuary. There he wrote his autobiography, the main source of our information. Nothing else is known but, according to tradition, he died at the monastery of Gouveneto on the Akrotiri peninsula, another institution that he founded.
It is worth noting that, since the eighth century, the Church of Crete had been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople. This meant that, when the Great Schism between Rome and the four other Patriarchates occurred in 1054, Crete was securely within the Eastern Church, where it has remained ever since.
Although, as we shall see, the Venetians became the legal rulers of Crete in 1204, it wasn’t for another ten or so years that they could be said to be rulers in fact. European history from the late eleventh century to the early thirteenth provides a master class in intrigue, power politics and economic ambition, and it is worth looking briefly at this background.
The fate of Crete was tied up with the infamous Fourth Crusade (for which Pope John Paul II apologised to the Ecumenical Orthodox patriarch 800 years later). Without going into too much detail, it is useful to understand the broad outline of the story.6 There had been an edgy but profitable relationship between Venice and the Byzantine Empire since the eleventh century.7 By a treaty of 1082, Venice was given tax-exempt trade concessions with many Greek cities and islands in exchange for naval help against the Normans and their raids on the eastern Mediterranean. By this stage, Byzantium had, once again, no navy to speak of, and the Venetian fleet became the de facto imperial navy. In reality, the Venetians, while reaping enormous rewards from the trade concessions, did very little to help the empire. Indeed, their ships were still prone to raiding Byzantine merchant ships in the Aegean. As the power of Venice grew, it acted more and more independently of Byzantium, ending with open hostility in 1171, followed by a fragile truce in 1186.
When Pope Innocent III called for a crusade to capture Egypt from the Muslims, it was Venice that supplied the transport for the large army of crusaders. In return, Venice was to receive 85,000 silver marks (just under £1 million at today’s silver prices) and half of the territory captured, although no specific places were mentioned. The crusaders could only pay a part of the cost, impoverishing themselves in the process, but nevertheless the fleet set sail in 1202. There is no clear evidence as to who was responsible, but at some stage the fleet diverted away from Egypt and towards Constantinople, which the crusaders attacked, captured and looted. The Byzantine Empire was now in the hands of the Frankish crusaders, and the leaders lost no time in carving it up between them. Crete was allocated to the commander, Boniface of Montferrat, but, with no naval experience and insufficient forces to control the large island, he negotiated with the Venetians to sell it to them. The far-seeing and ambitious Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, jumped at the chance and bought the island for 5,000 gold ducats (just under £500,000 at today’s gold prices) and a promise to support Boniface’s claim on the Kingdom of Thessalonica.8
This treaty of 1204 meant that Venice now ruled Crete, but, since the Venetians were busy consolidating control of their other new possessions in the Peloponnese and the Aegean, they were only able to establish a small force on the Island of Spinalonga (near Elounda) to stake their claim. Unfortunately, this was not sufficient to prevent an attack by the Genoese pirate Enrico Piscatore, Count of Malta. He quickly took control of most of eastern and central Crete, meeting little resistance from the locals. He restored the fortifications in Chandax, Siteia and Rethymnon and built fourteen other fortresses around the coast, including the strong castle at Palaiokastro (9 km north-west of Chandax). The Venetians responded by sending a fleet to recapture the island in 1206, but this attempt failed. Another attempt, in 1208, met with more success and managed to establish a foothold in Crete. There followed a protracted war, which lasted four years. Eventually, in 1212, Giacomo Tiepolo defeated the Genoese, although some enclaves, including the fortress at Palaiokastro, managed to hold out for another four years. Tiepolo became the first Venetian Duke of Crete, with his capital at Chandax, now called by its Italian name, Candia (modern Iraklion).
With the final establishment of Venetian rule in Crete, Venice now controlled access to Syria, Egypt and routes through the Aegean to Constantinople and the Black Sea. It also had in its possession an extremely fertile and wealthy, but rebellious, island.