During the late Middle Ages, the two cities of Argos (, ) and Nauplia (modern Nafplio, Ναύπλιο; in the Middle Ages Ἀνάπλι, in French Naples de Romanie) formed a lordship within the Frankish-ruled Morea in southern Greece. Following their conquest in 1211–1212, the cities were granted as a fief to Otto de la Roche, duke of Athens, by Geoffrey I of Villehardouin, prince of Achaea. The lordship remained in the possession of the de la Roche and the Brienne dukes of Athens even after the conquest of the Duchy of Athens by the Catalan Company in 1311, and the Brienne line continued to be recognized as dukes of Athens there. Walter VI of Brienne was largely an absentee lord, spending most of his life in his European domains, except for a failed attempt in 1331 to recover Athens from the Catalans. After his death in 1356 the lordship was inherited by his sixth son, Guy of Enghien. Guy took up residence in Greece, and in 1370–1371 Guy and his brothers launched another, also failed, invasion of the Catalan domains. When Guy died in 1376, the lordship then passed to his daughter Maria of Enghien and her Venetian husband Pietro Cornaro, who would also reside there until his death in 1388. The lordship became a de facto Venetian dependency during this period, and shortly after his death, Maria sold the two cities to Venice, where she retired. Before Venice could take possession, Argos was seized by the Despot Theodore I Palaiologos, while his ally, Nerio I Acciaioli seized Nauplia. The latter city was soon captured by Venice, but Argos remained in Byzantine hands until 1394, when it too was handed over to Venice. History In the first years of the 13th century, already before the arrival of the Fourth Crusade in the Byzantine Empire, Argos and Nauplia became the centre of an independent domain under the Greek lord Leo Sgouros. Sgouros had exploited the feebleness of imperial authority, and like many other provincial magnates, proceeded to carve out his own principality. From his hometown Nauplia, he seized Argos and Corinth, and attacked Athens, although he failed to take the Acropolis of Athens. By early 1205, Sgouros had advanced into Boeotia and Thessaly, but was forced to abandon his conquests in the face of the Crusaders under Boniface of Montferrat, who advanced south from Thessalonica. Boniface overran Thessaly, Boeotia and Attica, where