Once she assumed power Maria appointed her ambitious nephew Centurione II Zaccaria -son of her brother Andronikos- as her bailee, a choice that ended up being the undoing of her reign.

In the past Pedro had promised to the King of Naples Ladislaus 3.000 ducats in exchange for the title of the ruler of Morea, an amount of coins that he never paid.

Centurione acted secretly and dispatched a trusted person in Naples to inform Ladislaus that Maria and her children couldn't grant him the money but he himself was eager to pay them as long as he was recognized the only ruler of the Principality.

In order to justify his decision, he argued that Maria and her son demonstrated a punishable audacity by not renewing the feudal oath of the Princes of Achaea to Naples.

During her brief reign, based on her epistolography it seems that Maria was residing at the city of Patras, where we see her holding discussions with Venice about the appointment of a Venetian prelate.