William Grassus

William Grassus (Italian: Guglielmo Grasso; died 1201) was a Genoese admiral who took service with the Emperor Henry VI in his campaign to conquer the Kingdom of Sicily in 1194 and stayed on as Count of Malta and ammiratus ammiratorum until his deposition in 1201.

Merchant

William's origins are obscure.[lower-alpha 1] His surname originated as a nickname (meaning "fat") and was very common in Liguria, which has made it difficult to identify him with confidence in the surviving documentation. He was probably born around the middle of the 12th century into a family of the middle class. The earliest reference to him is as a witness to a document of 8 October 1186.[1]

William married Cara Campanaria, as is known from the agreement he made with her mother Richelda and brother Guglielmo concerning her dowry on 17 March 1196. This agreement is preserved in the cartulary of the monastery of San Siro in Genoa.[1] It gives William's birthplace as Nervi, which serves to distinguish him from a contemporary of the same name from Savona.[lower-alpha 2]

A document of 25 February 1190 shows William involved in the importation of pelts from Ceuta and the Byzantine Empire. In a series of documents between April and September 1191, he is shown with a partner, Gualtiero di Voltri, entering into business with some of the leading Genoese merchants of the da, Oberto de Valdettaro and Guglielmo Rataldo. His business seems to have been the importation of raw pelts for the tanning sector. These interests eventually took him to the eastern Mediterranean, possibly in search of alum.[1]

Pirate

At some point, for reasons unknown, William abandoned commerce for piracy. The most likely explanation is a sever financial reversal. Moreover, relations between the Italian merchants and Byzantium were near a low point after the Byzantine massacre of the Latins in 1182. Whatever the cause, between 1191 and 1193 William and his fleet preyed on shipping in the Aegean Sea. He was especially active off the coast of Pamphylia and Isauria, but he also made a landing on Rhodes, murdering the inhabitants and stealing their goods. One of his lieutenants was a citizen of Pisa from Bonifacio, a major centre of piracy.[1]

Emboldened by success, William intercepted a Venetian convoy coming from Egypt with a Byzantine embassy returning with ambassadors from the sultan, Saladin.[lower-alpha 3] After pretending to be in need of food, his men overran the Venetian ships. The Italians on board and their goods, however, were spared. Those of the rest were seized and the ambassadors, both Byzantine and Egyptian, all killed. The gifts intended for the Emperor Isaac II Angelos, valued at 6,675 hyperpers, were also seized. These included, jewels, spices, gold, perfumes, horses, mules and animals for the imperial hunting reserve. Including goods belonging to the emperor's brother, Alexios, the total seized amounted to 96,000 hyperpers. In response, Isaac ordered the Genoese ships and warehouses in Constantinople plundered. To stop it, the republic agreed to pay damages for William's acts and confirmed that if they ever found him they would turn him over the empire for punishment.[lower-alpha 4]

Admiral

After 1198 William was an ally of Pope Innocent IV and the young king Frederick I. Sometime before September 1202 he quarrelled with the German vicar Markward von Anweiler and was imprisoned. An attempt by the Republic of Genoa to liberate him failed, but he was freed on Markward's death. His son-in-law Henry had managed to succeed him in Malta and took over control of the Genoese faction at Palermo.

Notes
  1. Karl Hopf identified him with a son of Margaritus of Brindisi and hypothesised that he may have been the same person as the admiral Guglielmo Porco. Both identifications cannot be accepted.[1]
  2. Cornelio Desimoni mistook the Savonese William for the admiral, thereby giving him a wife named Romana.[1]
  3. This attack has sometimes been connected to the Third Crusade, ongoing at the time, and the fears in the West that Byzantium was in league with Saladin.[1]
  4. Genoa also paid a 20,000-hyperper advance on the damages. Two ambassadors, Guglielmo Tornello and Guido Spinola, who had only recently negotiated a treaty with Byzantium returned to Constantinople to negotiate another one. They told the emperor that William had been banished from the city.[1]

References
  1. Basso 2002.

Works cited
  • Basso, Enrico (2002). "Grasso, Guglielmo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 58: Gonzales–Graziani (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
  • Matthew, Donald. 1992. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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