Matilda, just fourteen years old, tried to press her claim as their heir but was refused by the bailiff Nicholas III of Saint Omer, who instead chose to wait for orders from Naples.

Philip of Taranto spent little time in Greece and appointed as his bailiff Guy II de la Roche, Matilda's husband.

Matilda and Louis landed in Achaea in early 1316 and secured control of the principality after the defeat and death of Ferdinand in the Battle of Manolada.

Robert also fabricated a story that Hugh had made an attempt on his life, and that Matilda was his accomplice, and used this as an excuse to imprison the princess.

Charles II's only condition was that if Florent died, Isabella or any daughters were not to remarry without royal consent: if they did, the principality was to revert to the king.

In order to safeguard the principality through establishing a marriage alliance, the young princess was soon married off to Guy II de la Roche, the Duke of Athens, who had only recently come of age.

[13] Isabella did not remain a widow for long: also in 1300, she met with Philip of Savoy, supposedly a valiant knight, in Rome (although negotiations had apparently been going on for some time) and shortly thereafter married him.

Though Charles II initially objected and tried to appeal to the 1289 agreement with Isabella and Florent, he eventually relented and reluctantly invested Philip as Prince of Achaea.

Philip had foreseen this and had shortly before escaped to his family's lands in Italy, leaving the bailiff Nicholas III of Saint Omer in charge.

[15] Upon the deposition of her mother and step-father, Matilda, approximately fourteen years old, tried to claim the principality for herself but Nicholas refused her and instead chose to wait for orders from Charles.

In order to ensure that Isabella and Philip of Savoy did not try to regain Achaea, Charles and his son bribed them through offering them the fief of Alba in Italy, on the shores of the Fucine Lake, as compensation.

Guy's position as the de facto ruler of Achaea was strengthened by his marriage to Matilda, granting a certain dynastic legitimacy, and by him at this point being the most powerful feudal lord in Greece.

[17] Guy did not enjoy this position for long, as he died of illness already on 8 October 1308, the last of his line,[18] making the young Matilda a widow.

[20] Unfortunately for Matilda, Louis delayed in travelling to Greece, having to stay in Burgundy until 1316 to prepare and to deal with the early death of his brother Hugh in May 1315.

Since this document was assumed to be a forgery and in any case still made Matilda out to be the heir, both the Kingdom of Naples and the feudal lords in the principality rejected Margaret's claim.

Unable to defeat this larger force, which was soon also bolstered even more after Louis allied with Michael Kantakouzenos, the Byzantine governor of Mystras, Ferdinand sent for aid from Athens and Majorca.

[b] In any case, Louis's death left Matilda, aged 23 and twice a widow, as the sole ruler of Achaea, a land torn apart by civil war less than a month prior.

[26] She was also surrounded by enemies; the Byzantine Empire eagerly wished to retake the entire peninsula and the Duchy of Athens, now under Catalan rule, was hostile to the Angevins of Naples.

[19] Matilda's precarious position is evident as she in early 1317 was unable to send any of her own troops to protect her vassals, the barons of Euboea, from an invasion by the Catalan Company.

This arbitrary interference with Matilda's rights caused her brother-in-law, Odo IV of Burgundy (who was Louis's designated heir)[c] to protest on her behalf and she also appealed to the Republic of Venice for aid.

For good measure Robert in September 1322 also fabricated a story that Hugh de La Palice was attempting to have him killed and that Matilda was in on the crime.

Matilda was the last descendant of Geoffrey I of Villehardouin to rule the Principality of Achaea, her deposition in 1321 and death in 1331 marking the final end of her maternal dynasty's lineage and career in Greece.

As she died childless despite her many marriages, Matilda upon her deathbed designated her cousin James, the son of her old rival Ferdinand of Majorca, as her heir.

As her final political act she thus chose to recognize the lineage of the usurper she had warred against rather than the line of Robert and John of Gravina's family.