Walter VI of Brienne, c. 1304 - 1356. Count of Brienne, Conversano, and Lecce, and titular Duke of Athens. Walter de Brienne was elected by the Florentines to govern their city. Due to his oppressive taxes and ferocious cruelty towards those who opposed him he soon became hated by the citizens who rose in arms and besieged his palace, after forcing him to abdicate they also expelled him from Florence in 1343. From Hutchinson's History of the Nations, published 1915.