The Aegean island of Náxos has flourished since 1207 as a Venetian Duchy.

The last Latin Christian duke, Jacopo IV Crispo, had already been paying tribute to the Ottoman Sultan when Selim II deposes him in 1566.

The Sultan's appointed representative, the last Duke of the Archipelago (1566-79) is a Portuguese Jew (Marrano), Joseph Nasi, the nephew of the wealthy philanthropist Gracia Mendes Nasi.

Joseph Nasi is married to his cousin, Doña Reyna Nasi, the heiress of the House of Mendes (which had taken refuge with its wealth in Portugal after the Alhambra decree of expulsion in 1492, then removed to Antwerp; following the death of the last of the Nasi-Mendes brothers, Gracia had eventually been forced to flee to then Venice, and finally Constantinople).