The Barony of Vostitsa was established ca. 1209, after the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Crusaders, and was one of the original twelve secular baronies within the Principality of Achaea. The barony, with eight knight's fiefs attached to it, was given to Hugh I of Charpigny. The origin and name of the family is unclear, due to the differing attestations of his name in the main source, the various versions of the "Chronicle of the Morea". The Greek version gives his surname as "de Lele", which has been commonly interpreted as being a corruption of "de Lille", and claims that he adopted the surname "de Charpigny" afterwards; while the Aragonese version of the "Chronicle" mentions that the first baron was Guy, that Hugh was his son, named "Cherpini" after the Greek village where he was born (which some authors identify with Kerpini), and "Lello" was the name of a fortress constructed on the family's domains in Laconia (possibly Helos); to further complicate matters, the toponym "Charpigny" is not attested in contemporary France.