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Whether hard fact or part legend, the tale of the 12 Young Rulers, is an integral part of Cretan history, continuing to inform locals’ mores and beliefs up to nowadays.
With aeons of intriguing, more often than not tumultuous, Cretan history inscribed in their local traditions and way of life, Cretans come across as fierce, proud and imposing. Not unlike true nobles, that is. In fact, while travelling around Crete, it is not uncommon to hear ageing villagers asserting that they are from blue blood: The descendants of aristocracy that once existed in Crete. Before dismissing their claims as old peoples’ ramblings, read on below for one of the most fascinating chapters of Cretan history: The tale of the 12 Young Rulers, though it is in some bits rather loosely documented, it demonstrates that nobility did exist in Crete from the 11th century and even beyond the Venetian era.
