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Despot Of Epirus
The Despot of Epirus was the ruler of the Despotate of Epirus, one of the rump states of the Byzantine Empire in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. The name "Despotate of Epirus" and the title "despot of Epirus" are modern historiographical names, and were not in use by the despots themselves. In the Byzantine Empire, the title of Despot (court title), despot () was a prestigious court title and did not designate rule over some specific territory. Though several of the early Greek rulers of the Epirote realm did use the title of despot, it was never in reference to the lands they governed, but instead in reference to their position in the imperial hierarchy. It was only with Epirus falling into the hands of foreign dynasties that the title of despot became applied not to the imperial hierarchy, but to the territory, sometimes to the dismay of the local population. "Despot of Epirus" is not recorded in contemporary documents for the rulers of foreign origin, but several other vers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo I Tocco
Carlo I Tocco was the hereditary Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos from 1376, and ruled as the Despot of Epirus from 1411 until his death on July 4, 1429. Life Carlo I was the son of Count Leonardo I Tocco of Cephalonia and Leukas by Maddalena de' Buondelmonti, sister of Esau de' Buondelmonti, ruler of Ioannina. Leonardo I Tocco, who was count of Cephalonia from 1357 until his death in 1376, as well as duke of Leukas from 1362, was himself the son of Guglielmo Tocco, governor of Corfu for the Angevins, and Margherita Orsini, sister of Nicholas Orsini and John II Orsini, rulers of Epirus and counts of Cephalonia. In this way, Carlo Tocco inherited a claim to Epirus from both the Orsini and the Buondelmonti. Carlo I succeeded his father as count of Cephalonia and duke of Leukas on the latter's death in 1376. He shared power with his brother Leonardo II, who was invested with the island of Zante as appanage in 1399. Expansion in the Morea His marriage to Francesca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basileus
''Basileus'' () is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs throughout history. In the English language, English-speaking world, it is perhaps most widely understood to mean , referring to either a or an . The title was used by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece (especially during the Hellenistic period), the Byzantine emperors, and the List of kings of Greece, kings of modern Greece. The name Vassilios, Basileios (Basil (name), Basil), deriving from the term ''basileus'', is a common given name in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Syriac Orthodox Church for the Maphrian. The feminine forms are ''basileia'' (), ''basilissa'' (), ''basillis'' (), or the archaic ''basilinna'' (), meaning or . The related term ''basileia'' () has meanings such as 'sovereignty', 'royalty', 'kingdom', 'reign', 'dominion' and 'authority'. Etymology The etymology of ''basileus'' is uncertain. The Mycenean Greek, Mycenaean form was *''gʷasileus'' (L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centurione II Zaccaria
Centurione II Asanes Zaccaria (died 1432), scion of a powerful Genoese merchant family established in the Morea since the marriage of the lord of Chios Martino Zaccaria to the baroness Jacqueline de la Roche. Centurione purchased the rights of the title of Prince of Achaea by Ladislaus of Naples in 1404 and was the last ruler of the once Latin Empire not under Byzantine suzerainty. Early years Centurione was the son of Andronikos Asen Zaccaria and of Catherine Le Maure, daughter of Erard III, baron of Arcadia. He was also grandson of Centurione I Zaccaria, bailee of the principality. He succeeded his father Andronikos in the barony of Arkadia (not to be confused with the region of the same name), barony of Chalandritsa in 1401 and also held the title of the lost to the Byzantines barony of Damala. After the death of Prince Pedro San Superan, his widow Maria, sister of Andronikos and aunt of Centurione, took command of the Principality, ruling Achaea in her own right ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus (; 27 June 1350 – 21 July 1425) was Byzantine emperor from 1391 to 1425. Shortly before his death he was tonsured a monk and received the name Matthaios (). Manuel was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, which sometimes threatened to capture his territory outright. Accordingly he continued his father's practice of soliciting Western European aid against the Ottomans, and personally visited several foreign courts to plead his cause. These efforts failed, although an Ottoman civil war and Byzantine victories against Latin neighbors helped Manuel's government survive and slightly expand its influence. His wife Helena Dragaš saw to it that their sons, John VIII and Constantine XI, became emperors. He is commemorated by the Greek Orthodox Church on 21 July. Life Manuel II Palaiologos was the second son of Emperor John V Palaiologos and his wife Helena Kantakouzene. Granted the title of '' despotēs'' by his father, the future Manuel II tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonardo II Tocco
Leonardo II Tocco (1375/76 – 1418/19) was a scion of the Tocco family and lord of Zakynthos, who played an important role as a military leader for his brother, Carlo I Tocco, in early 15th-century western Greece. Biography Leonardo was the second son and youngest child of Leonardo I Tocco, the Count palatine of the islands of Cephalonia and Zakynthos and lord of Ithaca and Leucas, and his wife, Maddalena dei Buondelmonti. His older siblings were Carlo I Tocco and Petronila, wife of Nicola Venier, the Venetian bailli of Negroponte.PLP 29008Talbot (1991), pp. 2090–2091 Leonardo's father died while he was still an infant, and for the next few years, his mother acted as regent for both her sons. His brother Carlo I gave the island of Zakynthos to him as an appanage in 1399, and Leonardo also received lands in the Principality of Achaea by Prince Pedro de San Superano. Little is known of him otherwise until ca. 1404–1406, when he took part in Carlo's attacks on the Epirote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simeon Uroš
Simeon Uroš ( sr-Cyrl, Симеон Урош, ; 1326–1370), nicknamed Siniša (), was a self-proclaimed Emperor of Serbs and Greeks, from 1356 to 1370. He was son of Serbian King Stephen Uroš III and Byzantine Princess Maria Palaiologina. Initially, he was awarded the title of despot in 1346, and appointed governor of southern Epirus and Acarnania in 1347 by his half-brother, Serbian Emperor Stephen Dušan. After Dušan's death in 1355, the Serbian throne passed to Dušan's son Stephen Uroš V, but despot Simeon decided to seize the opportunity in order to impose himself as co-ruler and lord of all southern provinces of the Serbian Empire. That led him to conflict with his nephew in 1356, when Simeon started to expand his control in southern regions of the Empire, trying to take Thessaly and Macedonia. He proclaimed himself ''Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks'', creating a separate state, centered in regions of Thessaly and Epirus, where he ruled until his death in 1370. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Preljubović
Thomas Preljubović (; ) was Despot of Epirus, ruler of the Despotate of Epirus in Ioannina from 1367 to his death in 1384. Thomas was an unpopular ruler and is appraised very negatively by his contemporaries. On December 23, 1384 he was stabbed to death by his guards at dawn. The conspiracy of the faction which overthrew him involved his wife Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina, Maria Angelina who succeeded him. A great deal of his rule was preoccupied with fighting against the Albanians of the Despotate of Arta to his south, the Zenebishi family to his north and the Mazreku (Epirus), Mazreku and other clans to his northwest. Thomas gave himself the self-styled epithet of Albanian-slayer (Greek language, Greek: Αλβανοκτόνος/Αλβανιτόκτονος) after torturing Albanian prisoners in order to terrify his enemies. Life Early years Thomas was the son of ''caesar'' Gregorios Preljub (), the Serbian governor of Medieval Thessaly, Thessaly, who died in late 1355 or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Despot Of Romania
Despot or ''despotes'' () was a senior Byzantine court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent of the Byzantine emperor. From Byzantium it spread throughout the late medieval Balkans and was also granted in the states under Byzantine cultural influence, such as the Latin Empire, the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire and its successor states ( Bulgarian and ), and the Empire of Trebizond. With the political fragmentation of the period, the term gave rise to several principalities termed "despotates" which were ruled either as independent states or as appanages by princes bearing the title of despot; most notably the Despotate of Epirus, the Despotate of the Morea, the Despotate of Dobruja and the Serbian Despotate. In modern usage, the word has taken a different meaning: "despotism" is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. The semantic shift undergone by the term i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komnenos Doukas
The House of Angelos (; pl. Angeloi; , pl. ) was a Byzantine Greek noble family that produced several Emperors and other prominent nobles during the middle and late Byzantine Empire. The family rose to prominence through the marriage of its founder, Constantine Angelos, with Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. As imperial relatives, the Angeloi held various high titles and military commands under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In 1185, following a revolt against Andronikos I Komnenos, Isaac II Angelos rose to the throne establishing the Angeloi as the new imperial family that ruled until 1204. The period was marked by the decline and fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire, culminating in its dissolution by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 under Alexios IV Angelos. After the Fourth Crusade, another branch of the family managed to establish an independent state in Epirus, which quickly expanded to rule Thessaly and Macedonia. The members of this branch lar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orsini Family
The House of Orsini is an Nobility of Italy, Italian noble family that was one of the most influential princely families in Middle Ages, medieval Italy and Renaissance Rome. Members of the Orsini family include five popes: Pope Stephen II, Stephen II (752–757), Pope Paul I, Paul I (757–767), Pope Celestine III, Celestine III (1191–1198), Pope Nicholas III, Nicholas III (1277–1280), and Pope Benedict XIII, Benedict XIII (1724–1730). The family also included 34 Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinals, numerous ''condottieri'', and other significant political and religious figures. The Orsini are part of the Black nobility who were Roman aristocratic families who supported the Popes in the governance of the Papal States. Origins According to their own family legend, the Orsini are descended from the Julio-Claudian dynasty of ancient Rome. The Orsini carried on a political feud with the Colonna family for centuries in Rome, until it was stopped by Papal Bull in 1511. In 1571 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John III Vatatzes
John III Doukas Vatatzes, Latinized as Ducas Vatatzes (; 1192 – 3 November 1254), was Emperor of Nicaea from 1221 to 1254. He was succeeded by his son, known as Theodore II Doukas Laskaris. Life John Doukas Vatatzes, born in about 1192 in Didymoteicho, was probably the son of the general Basil Vatatzes, who was killed in battle in 1194, and his wife, a cousin of the Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. John Doukas Vatatzes had two older brothers. The eldest was Isaac Doukas Vatatzes (1188-1261), while his younger brother died young. Through his marriage to Eudokia Angelina he fathered Theodora Doukaina Vatatzaina, who later married Michael VIII Palaiologos. The middle brother's name is unknown, but his daughter married the ''protovestiarios'' Alexios Raoul. A successful soldier from a military family, John had risen to the position of protovestiarites when he was chosen in about 1216 by Emperor Theodore I Komnenos Laskaris as the second husband for his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire Of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea (), also known as the Nicene Empire, was the largest of the three Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by Walter Abel Heurtley, W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse (1967), p. 55: "There in the prosperous city of Nicaea, Theodoros Laskaris, the son in law of a former Byzantine Emperor, establish a court that soon become the Small but reviving Greek empire." rump states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled when Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Republic of Venice, Venetian armed forces during the Fourth Crusade, a military event known as the Sack of Constantinople. Like the other Byzantine rump states that formed due to the 1204 fracturing of the empire, such as the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus, it was a continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire that survived well into the Middle Ages. A fourth state, known in histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
