with the Chronicle placing the battle after the Frankish capture of Kalamata, and the elder Villehardouin after the seizure of Modon. In any case, despite being outnumbered, the Franks, after a march of a single day, confronted the Greeks and won the battle, no details for which are given; the Chronicle simply states that "The Franks won the battle at that time; they killed them all, few escaped them". The exact location of the olive grove of Kountouras in Messenia is unknown. The Greek version of the Chronicle records, apart from the owner's name (Kountouras or the variant form Koundouron), a location named Kepeskianous (Κηπησκιάνους), while a variant form is recorded as Kapsikia (Καψικία). Efforts have been made to identify the locality, with some linking it with the modern village of Kapsia west of Mantinea in Arcadia, but this is too far from the reported area of the battle based on the sources, and furthermore olive trees do not grow in the region. Aftermath The Battle of the Olive Grove of Kountouras was decisive for the conquest of the Morea by the Franks, as it represented the last general effort of the local Greeks to resist. The eminent historian of Frankish Greece, William Miller, likened the battle to a "Hastings of the Morea", writing that the "fate of the Morea, like that of Saxon England, was decided by a single pitched battle". After their victory, the Crusaders rested for a while in the rich plain of Messenia. Champlitte called a council of war to determine their future strategy, and sent the fleet, which until then had accompanied them, home. In late 1205 or 1206, the Crusaders went on to capture Arkadia, whose siege lasted for some time, as well as the fortress of Araklovon, whose resistance was led by the celebrated warrior Doxapatres Voutsaras. By this time, the entire northern and western parts of the peninsula was under the rule of Champlitte. The northeast belonged to the Duchy of Athens under the suzerainty of Boniface of Montferrat, although Leo Sgouros and his men still held out in their two fortresses; and Laconia and the mountainous areas of the Taygetos and of Tsakonia remained still unsubdued. Nevertheless, the first stage of the Frankish conquest was complete, establishing a new Crusader state, the Principality of Achaea, and in a letter of Pope Innocent III on 19 November 1205, Champlitte is styled princeps