By the time the Byzantine empire was drawing to its close, the appetite of the European aristocracy for conquests in eastern lands had been growing rapidly, fed by increasingly ambitious ruthlessness. Under the pretext of liberating the Holy Land from the heathens, crusader armies of adventurers and booty-hunters swarmed to invade the riches of the East.
On the way home from one such crusade, the Norman noble Voimonde fell with insane fury on the Eptanissos islands, intent oh revenging the failure of his father Giscard to take Zakynthos and Kefalonia in 1084. Once more Zakynthos was laid in ruins. In 1147 the Normans came again, led by Rogiro I, and occupied all the Ionian isles. Although Emperor Emanuel of Byzantium managed with the help of the Venetians to take the islands back, he was eventually forced to sign a peace treaty with Rogiro in 1158.
In 1185 Zakynthos and Kefalonia broke away finally from the Byzantine empire. They formed the palatinate of Kefalonia and Zakynthos, the first ruler of which was the Brindisi pirate Margaritoni. After his death he was succeeded by another pirate, Maios (or Matthaios) Orsini, who in 1206 handed the palatinate overto Pope Innocenti III. One of the first papal decrees abolished the orthodox bishopric of Kefalonia and Zakynthos, and made the islands formally ackowledge the Christian dogma of the Western Church.
In 1209, Matthaio Orsini accepted Venetian everlordship for Zakynthos and Kefalonia. Subsequently these two islands became part of the domain of Geoffrey de Villehardouin who ruled Achaia, and thereafter the counts of Zakynthos and Kefalonia were subordinate to the princes of Achaia.
'From then onwards', writes Dionyssios A. Melitas in his The Society of Zakynthos, 'followed a string of masters who secured their succession by either an advantageous marriage, or a carefully executed murder. It was an exception if once in a while one of them died a natural death'.
Matthaio Orsini's second son, Richard, who married Anna Komninou, daughter of the Epirus despot loannis Angelos, was killed at Glarentza in 1303. He was succeeded by his son, Giovanni I, who married Maria, daughter of the despot NikiphPros, and sister of the last Greek despot of Epirus, Thomas Komninos. During Giovanni's rule, the Catalanians established a settlement on Zakynthos. Thomas Komninos was succeeded by Nikolaos, who left the administration o' the earldom of Zakynthos-Kefalonia in the hands of his brother, Giovanni II. Nikolaos killed Thomas' uncle and made himself despot of Epirus, abandoning the Western Christian dogma for Eastern orthodoxy. He was murdered in turn by his brother Giovanni II who, on acquiring Epirus, also adopted the orthodox faith, married Anna Palaiologou. and hellenised his name to loannis-Angelos Komninos. When his ambitious wifeipoisoned him in 1335, the Orsin' line came to an end.
Before his death loannis-Angelos Komninos had been forced to recognise Philip I, King of Naples, as suzerain of Zakynthos and the other islands. At his death, Philip bequeathed these lands to his eldest son and heir, Roberto. When Roberto was imprisoned after losing a war, the brothers Leonardo, Pedro and Ludovico de Tocci helped him to escape. To show his gratitude, Roberto gave Leonardo the principality of Zakynthos and Kefalonia, Ithaki and Ehinades, as well as his sister Francesca as wife. In this way the de Tocci dynasty was founded, which was to govern the island for more than a century.
Leonardo I did what he could to further the overall development of the Ionian islands, and set them firmly on the road to progress and prosperity. Most of his work was undone again by his successor, Carlos I, who was a selfish leader, unloved by the people, insatiable, violent and ever looking for war. His military exploits plus his marriage to the daughter of the Duke of Athens extended his possessions to include Arta, Akarnania, Albania, Achaia and Glarentza. Carlos' Greek subjects breathed a little more freely towards the end of his life, when he entrusted the government of the islands to his brother Leonardo II. Carlos I died in loannina in 1429, and appointed as his successor his nephew Carlos II, who rejoiced in the title 'By the Grace of God, Lord of Arta, Duke of Lefkada, Count of the Palatinate of Kefalonia, Ithaki and Zakynthos'. His successor, Leonardo III, an unstable opportunist, kept fighting the Turks, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, and eventually signed a peace treaty with them under which Zakynthos was obliged to pay an annual tax to the Porte. When the tax was left unpaid, the Turks sent their fleet to sack the island. Faced with the oncoming Ottoman fleet, says Georgios Frantzis in his Chronicles, Leonardo abandoned Zakynthos and left under cover of night. He took his treasury with him.
The intervention of the Venetians ensured a delay in the Turkish landing, chiefly so as to give the Frankish inhabitants of the island the chance to leave. The pillage finally took place in September 1479, and henceforth a Turkish garrison was quartered on Zakynthos.
The Venetians, who at this time were busily expanding their possessions and influence in the Mediterranean, had for some time been aware of the value and significance of Zakynthos. In 1484 they persuaded the Porte to cede them the island, in return for an annual five-hundred gold ducats to be paid to the Sultan.