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Irene Kantakouzene
Irene Kantakouzene (, ''Eiréne Kantakouzené'', modern pronunciation ''Iríni Kantakouziní'' , / ''Irina Kantakuzin''; – 3 May 1457), known simply as Despotess Jerina ( / ''despotica Jerina''), was the wife of Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković. In Serbian folk legends, she is the founder of many fortresses in Serbia. Life Although the Smederevo Fortress was the work of Đurađ Branković (completed in 1430), Irene apparently had a role in its construction; one of its towers is known as "Jerina renes Tower" ( / ''Jerinina kula''), and she is blamed for causing hardship on the inhabitants of the countryside by levying taxes and recruiting forced labor for building the fortress. The fortress traded hands between the Serbs and the Ottomans over the following years until it fell on 20 June 1459, more than two years after Branković, and then Irene, had died.Nicol, ''Byzantine Family'', p. 186 Nicols describes the circumstances of Irene's death as "melancholy". According to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Đurađ Branković
Đurađ Vuković Branković ( sr-Cyrl, Ђурађ Вуковић Бранковић, ; 1377 – 24 December 1456) served as the Serbian Despot from 1427 to 1456, making him one of the final rulers of medieval Serbia. In 1429, Branković was formally granted the Byzantine title of ''Despot'' by Emperor John VIII Palaiologos. Like many Christian rulers in Eastern Europe at the time, his rule was marked by Ottoman vassalage. Despite this, he often sought to strengthen Christian alliances while maintaining the appearance of loyalty to the Ottoman Empire. Branković is also remembered for constructing the Smederevo Fortress in the city of Smederevo, which became the last capital of medieval Christian Serbia. Despot Đurađ died in late 1456. Following his death Serbia, Bosnia, and Albania fell under the dominance of Sultan Mehmed II. During his reign Đurađ amassed a significant library of Serbian, Slavonic, Latin, and Greek manuscripts and made Smederevo a hub of Serbian culture. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smederevo Fortress
The Smederevo Fortress () is a medieval fortified city in Smederevo, Serbia, which was the temporary capital of Serbia in the Middle Ages. It was built between 1427 and 1430 on the order of Despot Đurađ Branković, the ruler of the Serbian Despotate. It was further fortified by the Ottoman Empire, which had taken the city in 1459. The fortress withstood several sieges by Ottomans and Serbs, surviving relatively unscathed. During World War II it was heavily damaged by explosions and bombing, despite which the fortress remained "one of the rare preserved courts of medieval Serbian rulers." As of 2009, it was in the midst of extensive restoration and conservation work, Smederevo Fortress was declared a national Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979. In 2010, the fortress was placed on the tentative list for possible nomination as a World Heritage Site (UNESCO). Location Smederevo Fortress, 45 kilometers southeast of Belgrade, covers 11.3 hectares ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzene (; ; – 15 June 1383) was a Byzantine Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as grand domestic under Andronikos III Palaiologos and regent for John V Palaiologos before reigning as Byzantine emperor in his own right from 1347 to 1354. Deposed by his former ward, he was forced to retire to a monastery under the name () and spent the remainder of his life as a monk and historian. At age 90 or 91 at his death, he was the longest-lived of the Roman emperors. Early life Born in Constantinople, John Kantakouzenos was the son of Michael Kantakouzenos, governor of the Morea; Donald Nicol speculates that he may have been born after his father's death and raised as an only child. Through his mother Theodora Palaiologina Angelina, he was related to the then-reigning house of Palaiologos. He was also related to the imperial dynasty through his wife Irene Asanina, a second cousin of Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos. Kantak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Kantakouzenos
Matthew Asen Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus (, c. 1325 – June 1383) was Byzantine Emperor from 1353 to 1357 and later Despot of the Morea from 1380 to 1381. Life Matthew Asanes Kantakouzenos was the son of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and Irene Asanina. In return for the support he gave to his father during his struggle with John V Palaiologos, he was given part of Thrace as an appanage in 1347, and was proclaimed joint emperor in 1353, when open civil war broke out again with John V. From his Thracian domain, centred on Gratzianous, he led several wars against the Serbs. An attack, which he prepared in 1350, was frustrated by the defection of his Turkish auxiliaries. With five thousand Turks, Matthew tried to re-establish his former appanage along the Serbian-Byzantine border by attacking this region, but failed to take Serres. He was soon defeated in battle in late 1356 or early 1357 by a Serb army under Vojvoda Vojihna, who was the holder of Drama (a major fortress in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demetrios I Kantakouzenos
Demetrios I Kantakouzenos (; 1343 – 1384) was a governor of the Morea and the grandson of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. Demetrios was the son of Matthew Kantakouzenos, governor of Morea, and Irene Palaiologina. Demetrios was given the title of ''sebastokrator'' by Emperor John V Palaiologos in December 1357 and went to the Peloponnese with his father and grandfather in 1361. One of the sons of Matthew Kantakouzenos, he disputed the succession to the Despotate of the Morea with Theodore I Palaiologos, the son of John V between 1380 and 1384. Our only information for this event is a cryptic reference in the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos' funeral oration for his brother Theodore, who remarks on the insubordination of the "son" of Matthew Kantakouzenos, who had usurped the government on the death of Manuel Kantakouzenos in 1380. The traditional view is that this son was John, not Demetrios; however, D.A. Zakythenos, a historian of the Despotate of the Peloponnese, was incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Monarchs Of Georgia
This is a list of kings and queens regnant of the kingdoms of Georgia before Russian annexation in 1801–1810. For more comprehensive lists, and family trees, of Georgian monarchs and rulers see Lists of Georgian monarchs. Kings of Iberia Presiding princes of Iberia Georgia under Bagrationi dynasty Bagrationi dynasty Partitions of Georgia under Bagrationi rule Table of rulers Many members of the Bagrationi dynasty were forced to flee the country and live in exile after the Red Army took control of the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1921 and installed the Georgian Communist Party. Since Georgia regained independence in 1990 the dynasty have raised their profile, and in 2008 the two rival branches were united by marriage of the Mukhranski pretender David Bagration of Mukhrani and Ana Bagration-Gruzinsky, the eldest daughter of the Gruzinski pretender Nugzar Bagration-Gruzinsky. The marriage ended in divorce in 2013, but produced a son named Giorg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helena Kantakouzene, Empress Of Trebizond
Helena Kantakouzene (died 1463) was the second wife of David of Trebizond, the last Emperor of Trebizond. Family Donald Nicol has argued that Helena was the sister of George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, and thus the granddaughter of Matthew Kantakouzenos and possibly the daughter of Theodore Kantakouzenos. Theodore Spandounes reports that George visited her in Trebizond after 1437. It is unclear which of David's children were also hers; his five children—three boys and two daughters—have been attributed variously to Helena or David's first wife Maria of Gothia by various genealogies. Nevertheless, the oldest sons died with their father 1 November 1463; the youngest son, George, who was three years old, and the daughter Anna were spared. Spandounes states they were sent as a present to Sultan Uzun Hassan of the Aq Qoyunlu, where George was converted to Islam, but he eventually escaped and abjured to Christianity. Spandounes says the name of the king who sheltered George Kanta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Kantakouzenos
Thomas Kantakouzenos ({{langx, el, Θωμάς Καντακουζηνός, ''Thomás Kantakouzenós'', modern pronunciation ''Thomás Kantakouzinós'', {{langx, sr, Тома Кантакузин/''Toma Kantakuzin''; died 25 July 1463) was a Byzantine aristocrat, a member of the Kantakouzenos family, who became a Serbian magnate and general that served Despot Đurađ Branković. He was the brother of Irene Kantakouzene, Đurađ's wife. Origin The Byzantinist Donald Nicol, who researched the family's history, categorically identifies him as the brother of George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos; Giovanni Musachi makes him the brother of Irene Kantakouzene, wife of Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković, but incorrectly states Thomas was the son of the Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, an error DuCange repeats. Instead, he is more probably the son of Theodore Kantakouzenos.{{harvnb, Nicol, 1968, p=182. Nicol had backed away from his initial identification of Thomas' and George's father ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andronikos Palaiologos Kantakouzenos
Andronikos Palaiologos Kantakouzenos (died 4 June 1453) was the last Grand Domestic of the Byzantine Empire. Present in the city at the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, he was one of the group of high Imperial officials executed by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II five days after the city was taken. Andronikos was amongst those who advised Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos to take for his third wife Anna, the daughter of Emperor David of Trebizond, instead of Mara Mara or MARA may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Mara (''Doctor Who''), an evil being in two ''Doctor Who'' serials * Mara (She-Ra), fictional characters from the ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' and ''The New Advent ..., the daughter of Đurađ Branković, despot of Serbia. His name appears on the treaty between Byzantium and Venice concluded in April 1448, in place of Demetrios Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, who was indisposed at the time.Nicol, ''Byzantine Family'', p. 180 He is likely the Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Nicol
Donald MacGillivray Nicol, (4 February 1923 – 25 September 2003) was an English Byzantinist. Life Nicol was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, to a Church of Scotland minister, and received a classical education at King Edward VII School in Sheffield and St Paul's School in London. Registering as a conscientious objector in 1941, he served in 1942–1946 in the Friends' Ambulance Unit, with which he first visited Greece in 1944–1945, visiting Ioannina and the Meteora monasteries. After his wartime experiences, Nicol matriculated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, to read classics, graduating in 1949. He then returned to Greece in 1949–1950 as a member of the British School at Athens. During this time, he also visited Mount Athos, spending Easter 1949 at the Hilandar Monastery, and revisited Meteora. In 1950, Nicol married Joan Mary Campbell, with whom he had three sons. He completed his doctoral thesis at Cambridge in 1952. The thesis, on the medieval Despotate of Epirus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos
George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos (; ca. 1390 – 1456/59.) was a Byzantine aristocrat, a member of the Kantakouzenos family, and adventurer. He is also known by the Turkish nickname Sachatai, which he earned in the service of the Despot Constantine early in his military career. Life George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos was likely the son of Theodore Palaiologos Kantakouzenos.Donald M. Nicol, ''The Byzantine Family of Kantakouzenos: Some Addenda and Corrigenda, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 27'' (1973), p. 312-3 Among his siblings were the Despotess of Serbia Irene Kantakouzene, the Empress of Trebizond Helena, and the unnamed wife of King George VIII of Georgia. He was also a cousin of the last two Byzantine emperors, John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos. He spent his youth in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, where he studied under John Chortasmenos. In later life he moved to the Despotate of the Morea, where he is attested in documents from Dubrovnik written ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Spandounes
Theodore Spandounes (, ) was an early 16th-century Greek historian of noble Byzantine extraction; the son of exiles fleeing the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium who had settled in Venice, Italy. As a youth he stayed with relatives in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and visited the Ottoman capital at Constantinople, acquiring a knowledge of their history and culture. In later life he served successive Popes as a counsellor and repeatedly advocated the dispatch of a new Crusade against the Ottomans. His chief legacy is his Italian-language history on the origins of the Ottoman state and its history up to that time, whose first version was published in 1509 in Italian and was soon translated into French. Spandounes continued working on it, with the final version appearing in 1538. The work is disorganized and contains errors, but is extremely valuable as a historical source for its wealth of information. Family and origin Theodore Spandounes was most probably born in Venice, the son of Matthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
