Paolo Navigajoso

Who is Paolo Navigajoso?

Paolo Navigajoso was a scion of the noble Venetian Navigajoso family and third Latin ruler of the island of Lemnos in Greece.

Paolo was the eldest son and heir of Leonardo Navigajoso. Upon his father's death in 1260, he inherited the rule of one half of Lemnos as well as the title of megadux of the Latin Empire, which he continued to use even though the remnants of the Latin Empire fell to the Byzantine Greeks of the Empire of Nicaea in 1261. Along with his two brothers, Filippo and Nicolao, and his cousins, Giovanni Foscari and Filocalo Gradenigo, who controlled the other half of the island, he opposed the Byzantines when they attacked the island in 1276 under Licario. Licario however persisted, and gradually took the island, as one by one the Latin princes fell in battle. The main fortress of Kastro continued to resist, and after Paolo was killed in 1277, his widow, a daughter of Angelo Sanudo, continued to defend it until she was eventually forced to surrender it in 1278.