| Abstract: | Of all the inhabitants, both Latin and Greek, of the colony of Crete, Greek women of the elite and the poorest unfree Greek women were the most vulnerable to the process of colonization after the Venetian conquest of the island in 1211. An examination of wills and marriage contracts from the fourteenth century offers evidence of the change brought about by the entrance of Greek women as wives into Latin households. The presence there of Greek servant women and slaves, who bore the illegitimate children of Latin fathers, also modified the character of Latin households. The sanctioned and non-sanctioned unions between Greek women and Latin men gave rise, in large part, to a colonial society whose constituent communities displayed more characteristics in common than has previously been thought. |
