Náxos passes to Venetian control in 1207 when Marco Sanudo, Dandolo’s maternal nephew, conquers the island and soon captures the rest of the islands of the Cyclades.

He establishes himself as Duke of Naxia, or Duke of the Archipelago, subject, like the Principality of Achaea, to the Latin emperor in Constantinople.

The Venetians, with whom Emperor Michael VIII concludes a treaty in 1273, retain control of many of the Greek islands.

Constantinople has reasserted control over most of the Aegean islands by the late thirteenth century, with the notable exception of Crete, which Venice continues to hold as part of its growing commercial empire.

The native Cretans, however, have never abandoned their Orthodox religion, Greek language, and popular lore.

The victorious Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II move on from their conquest of Constantinople to conquer Albania and Greece, isolating Venetian outposts here.

The despots of Morea, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, brothers of the last emperor, had failed to send him any aid, as Morea was reeling from a recent Ottoman attack.

Their own incompetence at rule leads to an Albanian-Greek revolt against them, when they invite in Ottoman troops to help them put down the revolt.

At this time, a number of leading Moreote Greeks and Albanians make private peace with Mehmed.

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).