Francesca Acciaioli or Acciajuoli (died 1430) was the wife of Carlo I Tocco, Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos.
Francesca was the younger of the two daughters of Nerio I Acciaioli and Agnes de' Saraceni. [1] [2] Nerio Acciaioli—a scion of a prominent banking house of Florence—moved to Frankish Greece in the 1360s. [3] Initially, he acted on behalf of his powerful kinsman, Niccolò Acciaioli, who adopted him as his son. [4] Nerio seized large domains in the Principality of Achaea: Niccolò's son, Angelo, mortgaged Corinth to him and Nerio captured Megara by force. [5] [6] Francesca's maternal grandfather, Saraceno de' Saraceni, was a Venetian citizen in Negroponte. [7] Nerio and Agnes get married before 1381. [2]
Negotiations about Francesca's marriage with a son of Felipe Dalmau, the vicar-general of the Duchy of Athens, were futile in 1382. [8] Plans about Francesca's marriage with Angelo Acciaioli's son did not materialize either in 1388. [8] By 1388, Nerio became the actual ruler of the Duchy of Athens. [9]
Francesca was given in marriage to Carlo I Tocco, Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos between 1388 and 1393. [10] Carlo I's mother, Maddalena de' Buondelmonti, had arranged the marriage, expecting that Francesca was to inherit parts of her father's domains, because she had no legitimate brothers. [10] According to canon law, the marriage was incestuous, because Maddalena was Niccolò Acciaioli's niece, but its legality was never questioned. [10]