Battle of Picotin
1316 battle between Achaea and Majorca
The Battle of Picotin was fought on 22 February 1316 between the Catalan forces of the infante Ferdinand of Majorca, claimant to the Principality of Achaea, and the forces loyal to Princess Matilda of Hainaut, comprising native levies from the barons loyal to the Princess as well as Burgundian knights. The battle ended in a crushing victory for Ferdinand, but he was later engaged and killed by the troops of Matilda's husband, Louis of Burgundy, at the Battle of Manolada.
Background
In 1278, when Prince William II of Villehardouin died without male offspring, per the Treaty of Viterbo, the princely title of Achaea in southern Greece passed to the Angevin King of Sicily, Charles of Anjou. In 1289, the Angevins had passed control of the principality to William's eldest daughter, Isabella of Villehardouin, and her descendants, but retained their suzerainty over Achaea. After Isabella's death in 1312, her younger sister Margaret of Villehardouin claimed the principality, or at least part of it, as her inheritance, but her claims were rejected by the Angevins, who supported the succession of Isabella's daughter, Matilda of Hainaut.
In order to gain support for her claims, Margaret visited Sicily in February 1314 to wed her only daughter, Isabella of Sabran to the Infante Ferdinand of Majorca, who, as a landless prince, was eager to claim the princely title of Achaea. The wedding was celebrated at Messina in February 1314 in great pomp. Margaret passed her titles and claims to them, and returned to Achaea. There she was confronted with the hostility of the Achaean barons to her act, and imprisoned by the Angevin bailli Nicholas le Maure at the castle of Chlemoutsi, where she died in March 1315. Soon after, Ferdinand invaded Achaea in a bid to claim the Principality from Matilda and her husband, Louis of Burgundy, who were still absent from Greece.
The public source identifies “Battle of Picotin” as 1316 battle between Achaea and Majorca. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Battle, Picotin and battle.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17515504. Authority coordinates are 37.892, 21.374. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1316, 1278, 1289 and 1312.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Picotin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.