page_title: Francesca Acciaioli
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Francesca Acciaioli / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration from Atene Attica Descritta da suoi Principii sino all’acquisto fatto dall’Armi Venete nel 1687…, Venice, Antonio Bortoli, 1695 edition, by Francesco Fanelli
context_page_description: Francesca Acciaioli or Acciajuoli was the wife of Carlo I Tocco, Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos.
context_section_description: Francesca was the younger of the two daughters of Nerio I Acciaioli and Agnes de' Saraceni. Nerio Acciaioli—a scion of a prominent banking house of Florence—moved to Frankish Greece in the 1360s. Initially, he acted on behalf of his powerful kinsman, Niccolò Acciaioli, who adopted him as his son. Nerio seized large domains in the Principality of Achaea: Niccolò's son, Angelo, mortgaged Corinth to him and Nerio captured Megara by force. Francesca's maternal grandfather, Saraceno de' Saraceni, was a Venetian citizen in Negroponte. Nerio and Agnes get married before 1381.
  Negotiations about Francesca's marriage with a son of Felipe Dalmau, the vicar-general of the Duchy of Athens, were futile in 1382. Plans about Francesca's marriage with Angelo Acciaioli's son did not materialize either in 1388. By 1388, Nerio became the actual ruler of the Duchy of Athens.
caption: Francesca's father, Nerio I Acciaioli
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