page_title: Guy Pallavicini
section_title: Early activity
hierarchical_section_title: Guy Pallavicini / Life / Early activity
context_page_description: Guy or Guido Pallavicini, called Marchesopoulo by his Greek subjects, was the first marquess of Bodonitsa in Frankish Greece from 1204 to his death in or shortly after 1237. He was one of the most important Frankish rulers in Greece, and played a major role in the short-lived Kingdom of Thessalonica: in 1208–1209 he supported the Lombard rebellion against King Demetrius of Montferrat, but by 1221 he was the kingdom's regent, and was left to defend the city against the ruler of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas. Left unsupported by the Latin Empire, and with a projected crusade to relieve the city delayed, he surrendered the city in December 1224. The belated arrival of the crusade helped to save his own fief from falling to the Epirotes, however, and he was soon able to return there, dying on or shortly after 1237.
context_section_description: In autumn 1204, following the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders and the division of the Byzantine Empire among the Crusader leaders, he accompanied Boniface of Montferrat as he went west to establish his Kingdom of Thessalonica. During Boniface's march south into Greece, Guy was appointed warden of the strategic pass of Thermopylae. Guy made the nearby settlement of Bodonitsa (modern Mendenitsa) his seat, erecting a castle on the ruins of an ancient acropolis, probably that of Pharygai, which gave wide sight over the coastal plain around the Malian Gulf. The exact bounds of the marquisate are unknown, but it lay between the northern boundaries of the Duchy of Athens and the town of Zetouni (modern Lamia), which was partially owned by Guy. The Chronicle of the Morea reports that Boniface soon transferred suzerainty over Bodonitsa to the Prince of Achaea, William of Champlitte (r. 1205–1209); however, the report of Marino Sanudo Torsello, that this only occurred under Geoffrey II of Villehardouin (r. c. 1229 – 1246), is more likely to be correct. According to the Chronicle, Guy participated in the long siege of the Acrocorinth, held by the Greek lord Leo Sgouros.
  Boniface of Montferrat was killed fighting against the Bulgarians in 1207, leaving his infant son Demetrius (r. 1207–1224) as his successor. Guy and his brother, possibly named Rubino, became one of the leaders of the Lombard revolt against Demetrius and his mother Margaret of Hungary. The Lombard barons favoured Demetrius' older half-brother, William VI, Marquess of Montferrat, but were opposed by the Latin Emperor, Henry of Flanders (r. 1205–1216). Henry succeeded in outmanoeuvring them and in January 1208 crowned Demetrius king, but the barons launched a rebellion across the kingdom. Henry marched south, overcoming the opposition of the barons one by one; those he captured were treated leniently, however, and allowed to keep their fiefs. Guy was among the last to hold out, taking refuge in the Cadmeia of Thebes, rather than submit to Imperial judgment at the First Parliament of Ravennika. Emperor Henry was forced to begin preparations for a siege of the Cadmeia, before the Lombard barons agreed to surrender. Once again they were allowed to keep their fiefs, but now as imperial vassals.
  Like most of the Latin lords of Greece, Guy had a difficult relationship with the Church in his domains: although he handed over Zetouni to the Knights Templar, he confiscated property belonging to the local bishopric of Thermopylae, and was negligent in the payment of the tithe to the Church. Although he most likely did not attend the Second Parliament of Ravennika in 1210, he ratified the concordat that attempted to settle the differences between the Church and the Latin lords.
caption: Greek and Latin states in southern Greece, c. 1210