They would, in time, rise to become the principality's last titled rulers, marrying in the process with other major houses ruling over Greek territories and in the Balkans, most notably, the Tocco, Asen and Palaiologos families.

Bartolomeo died in 1334, and though he had a daughter, Marulla, according to the Assizes of Romania, the Zaccaria family, as Latins in Frankish Greece, observed Salic Law which only allowed for male succession in their fiefdoms.

The Prince couldn't punish a baron without the lawful consent of the other liege barons.According to the Chronicle of Morea, the original baronies were twelve, including Chalandritsa and Veligosti (Veligurt),[7] whose fief was the city of Damalà.

By supporting Robert of Taranto, son of titular Latin Emperor Philip II, Centurione obtained the recognition of his position and the confirmation of his rights, which had been violated several times in the past by the Angevin princes.

Two years earlier, Hugh IV, King of Cyprus, and the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John had appealed to the Doge of Venice and to the Pope, Benedict XII, for aid in a Crusade against the Turks.

The Pope answered this combined appeal by preparing a fleet consisting of ships from Cyprus, Venice and the Knights of St. John and on 16 September 1343 placed Martino in command.

[14] The family gained imperial favor once again, with Martino leading this crusade on behalf of the Byzantines to retake coastal lands of Anatolia, but this ended with his demise in 1345.

Although the inhabitants firmly rejected an initial offer of protection, the island was invaded by a Genoese fleet led by Admiral Simone Vignoso.

While it is certain that Centurione and his immediate family left the island at this time, some members evidently stayed behind, as a "Jane Zaccaria" is recorded as a witness to a property sale on 14 June 1348.

[29] Maria, sister to Andronikos and only daughter of Centurione I, married Pedro de San Superano, leader of the Navarrese Company beginning in 1386.

[30] Ultimately, Pedro did not have the funds to pay Ladislas, and after his death in November 1402, his wife ruled Achaea on behalf of her underage son as reigning princess as Maria II until 1404.

It was in that year that her nephew, Centurione II Zaccaria, eldest son of her brother Andronikos, won a family inheritance dispute since she also could not fulfill the original terms of the sale.

Ladislas agreed to sell the rights to Centurione, who promptly paid the owed sum to become the first truly sovereign Prince of Achaea, as per the original terms of the sale.

[41] Upon his uprising, he was proclaimed Prince of Achaea for the first time by Greek magnates, adopting the double-headed eagle as his emblem, and taking the city of Aetos as his seat.

He was subsequently imprisoned with his eldest son and wife Magdalene Tocco[42][43] by Thomas in Chlemoutsi castle, just as his mother had been, and left these dangerous remnants of the previous dynasty to waste away.

[41] He was congratulated and recognized by many Western rulers, namely Pope Nicholas V, King Alfonso V of Naples, and the Venetian Doge Francesco Foscari, calling him "Prince Centurione III."

In 1457, the Venetian Republic, recognising his high political value as titular Prince of Morea, also granted him an annuity, on the condition John would continue to reside in Modon or wherever else he could be most useful to the designs of Venice.

On 21 April, 1461 the pope received an additional letter from the Duke of Milan, Francesco I Sforza, who also recommended that John should receive support,“considering the great disturbances and adversities which he had suffered from both the Turks and from the Greeks.”[50] In September 1461, John moved to Rome where he was welcomed to the papal court of Pope Paul II, who granted him a monthly pension of twenty florins as Prince of Achaea until his death in 1469.

[58] The father of Antonio is listed as "Zaccaria de Damalà," now known to be Giovanni through Catholic baptismal records archived on the island of Tinos regarding his grandchildren.

[65] Starting with the children of Antonio, the family begins to appear in the Catholic vital records of Chios, all bearing distinctive Italian names along with the Damalà surname.

Though the members of the three upper levels were considered noble, this was not officially recognized under Ottoman rule, but due to the special privileges that Chios enjoyed in the empire, the Turks simply turned a blind eye to these classifications which were observed on the island, and did not interfere in their local government affairs.

[33] By 1686, the Damalà were still recorded as one of the remaining Latin noble families of Genoese origin by Giovanni Battista de Burgo in his visit to the island in that year.

The Turks imposed heavy taxes, confiscated the estates of the fugitives and threw into chains three men from each important family, considering them accomplices or followers of the Venetians.

This transition is observed in the names of the family around the massacre, which was effectively a great reset to the island that solidified the Ottoman preference of Orthodox Greeks over other groups in Chios.

Over the following decades the family reemerged as an influential force in the region, establishing themselves in Ermoupoli on the island of Syros, a place where other Chian nobles had fled to after 1822.

In the cosmopolitan Vaporia district by the port of Ermoupoli, he had built an extremely ornate palace in the neoclassical style, rich with frescoes by Italian artist Giuseppe Tami.

Aristidis Iakovos Damalas, better known as Jacques Damalà, who began as a military officer and diplomat, soon left these professions as he became infamous in Paris due to his womanizing habits and frequent opium consumption, to later become an actor and marry fellow actress, French theater star Sarah Bernhardt.

[77] Regarding Jacques, Bram Stoker, the author of gothic horror classic novel Dracula, noted: "I sat next to him at supper, and the idea that he was dead was strong on me.

[80] Jacques was a good friend of fellow Greek Basil Zaharoff, the notorious "merchant of death" and one of the richest men in the world at the time.

Eventually, this girl was baptised Tereza (1889–1967) and was raised by a surrogate family that Zaharoff found for her in Adrianople, in Eastern Thrace, later becoming a socialite in royal Athens society, and an impactful lover of both Ernest Hemingway, who called a her a "Greek princess", and Gabriele d'Annunzio, as well getting acquainted with Benito Mussolini, and serving as a model for Pablo Picasso in the early 20th century.