Cyclades Independent and Pirate Past

After the Fourth Crusade, in 1204, seventeen Cyclades islands were conquered by the Venetian aristocrat Marco Sanudo. His quasi-independent state with its capital on Naxos was to last for over three centuries. The greatest threat to its survival was piracy, yet the island state was also riven by internal rivalries, assassination plots, kidnappings and the famous War of the Ass between Tinos and Syros. The fascinating stories of the Cyclades do not end there, however. In this book, we’ll explore many more incredible and legendary stories: the local slave who became an Ottoman Empress; the infamous corsair Barbarossa; the epic pirate battle of Ios; the piratic state of Milos; the vampire of Mykonos; and finally how one of these islands, the impregnable Queen, pushed the Ottoman threat back until the very end, in 1715.