The Bua were a medieval

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

tribe. The name is first attested in 14th-century historical documents as one of the Albanian tribes living in the

Despotate of Epirus The Despotate of Epirus () was one of the Greek Rump state, successor states of the Byzantine Empire established in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 by a branch of the Angelos dynasty. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ...

. Later on, the Bua settled southwards in the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

, and a part of them found refuge in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in the

Arbëreshë Arbën/Arbër, from which derived Arbënesh/Arbëresh originally meant all Albanians, until the 18th century. Today it is used for different groups of Albanian origin, including: * Arbër (given name), an Albanian masculine given name *Arbëres ...

migrations that followed the

Ottoman conquest of the Balkans A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia i ...

. A branch of the tribe regiments was ennobled in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

after its service in the

Stratioti The Stratioti or Stradioti were mercenary units from the Balkans recruited mainly by states of Southern Europe and Central Europe from the 15th century until the middle of the 18th century. They were largely of Albanian origin (about 80%), other ...

, a Balkan mercenary unit. Mërkur Bua (1478 –c. 1542), its most prominent member, was

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

of Aquino and

Roccasecca Roccasecca is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Frosinone, in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is the birthplace of Thomas Aquinas. History The history of Roccasecca is tightly bound to its strategic position, a "dry '' rocca''" at ...

Name

''Bua'' appears in historical record as both a

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

and as a surname. It is often accompanied by the surname ''Shpata''.

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 Byza ...

's ''History'' written in second half of the 14th century is the first primary source about the Bua tribe. Kantakouzenos writes that the "Albanian tribes of

Mazaraki The Mazreku, or alternatively, the Mazaraki, Mazarech and Masarachi, were a historical Albanian tribe in medieval Epirus and Thessaly. They appear in historical records as one of the Albanian tribes which raided and invaded Thessaly after 1318 and ...

, Bua,

Malakasioi The Malakasi were a historical Albanian tribes, Albanian tribe in medieval Epirus (region), Epirus, Thessaly and later southern Greece. Their name is a reference to their area of origin, Dangëllia (from Turkish Dağ-ili, older name "Malakasi") in ...

were named so after the names of their leaders." Albanian clans traditionally bore the name of their first leader or progenitor, but after intermarriage between different leading families, the identification of the clans became intricate, as in the case of Muriki Bua Spata, who was perhaps the offspring of both Bua and Spata clans. According to the Greek historian

Constantine Sathas Constantine Sathas (; Athens, 1842 – Paris, 25 May 1914) was a Greek historian and researcher. Sathas spent his life unearthing hitherto unknown material pertaining to the history of late medieval and early modern Greece that he later publishe ...

, the surname ''Bua'' derived from the name of the river '' Buna'' in

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

and

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

, while poet Giuseppe Schirò suggested that the original form of the name was ''Buchia'', from which stem the two forms ''Bugia'' and ''Bokoi''. According to Schirò, from the latter derived the form ''Koboi'' attested in the ''

Chronicle of the Tocco A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, t ...

'', and from the indefinite form ''Kobua'', through

apheresis Apheresis ( ἀφαίρεσις (''aphairesis'', "a taking away")) is a medical technology in which the blood of a person is passed through an apparatus that separates one particular constituent and returns the remainder to the circulation. ...

of the initial syllable, ultimately derived ''Bua''. Another possible derivation is from

'' bua'' (' buffalo').

History

They were semi-nomadic pastoralists, organized in ''katuns'' and had no central leadership. From that time, they appear in the history of the

and the involvement of Gjin Bua Shpata in the region. The Bua are believed to be not patrilineally kin (blood relatives) with the Shpata tribe. However this theory is rejected and their first name was Bua, while the name Spata appears to them as a second name, creating a cadet branch of the Buas. For the purpose of glorifying their ancestry, the Buas claimed to be descendants of

Pyrrhus of Epirus Pyrrhus ( ; ; 319/318–272 BC) was a Greeks, Greek king and wikt:statesman, statesman of the Hellenistic period.Plutarch. ''Parallel Lives'',Pyrrhus... He was king of the Molossians, of the royal Aeacidae, Aeacid house, and later he became ki ...

. Mercurio Bua had a genealogy drawn up for this purpose and found no contradiction. The coat of arms granted to him therefore reproduced the alleged arms of the ancient kings of Epirus, enriched by the cross with two stars supposedly granted to the Bua by the Emperor

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

, who stopped in their castle in Albania when he left Rome to go and found Constantinople. The Meksi family is believed to be the first branch of Bua tribe. Many of the leaders of the

Despotate of Arta The Despotate of Arta (; ) was a despotate established by Albanians, Albanian rulers during the 14th century, after the defeat of the local Despot of Epirus, Nikephoros II Orsini, by Albanian tribesmen in the Battle of Achelous (1359), Battle of ...

appears with ''Bua'' as a second surname in historical record. As such, in historiography the Bua are considered to have been among the rulers of the Despotate of Arta and the regions of

Aetolia Aetolia () is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. Geography The Achelous River separates Aetolia from Acarnania to the west; on ...

and

Acarnania Acarnania () is a region of west-central Greece that lies along the Ionian Sea, west of Aetolia, with the Achelous River for a boundary, and north of the gulf of Calydon, which is the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. Today it forms the western part ...

to the south after the Battle of Achelous until 1416. After their loss, the Venetians invited the Bua tribe to settle in the

Morea Morea ( or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used by the Principality of Achaea, the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the O ...

. In 1423, they appear in Venetian records in the Morea under the leadership of ''Rossus Bua, capu unius comitive Albanensium''. The Bua tribe established in Morea amounted to about one or two thousand people in 1423, and consisted of four katunds. After the fall of much of the Morea to the Ottomans, Venice invited them to settle in the

Ionian Islands The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: , ; Ancient Greek, Katharevousa: , ) are a archipelago, group of islands in the Ionian Sea, west of mainland Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese ("Seven Islands"; , ''Heptanēsa'' or , ''Heptanē ...

, in particular in

Zakynthos Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; ; ) or Zante (, , ; ; from the Venetian language, Venetian form, traditionally Latinized as Zacynthus) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands, with an are ...

in 1473. Many branches of them settled in Italy after 1479 as part of the

migrations. In Italy, many of them joined

regiments. Between 1481 and 1570, at least 44 Buas appear as stratioti captains. Among them two Gjin, Gjon, Bardh Bua. The best known was Mërkur Bua who in time was ennobled. In modern Greece, in 1504 a branch of the Albanian tribe of Bua who remained in the Ionian Islands were part of the colonization of the abandoned island of

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

. The Boua-Grivas as they came to be known in the late 16th century produced the anti-Ottoman rebel and armatolos Theodore Boua-Grivas who started a revolt in Epirus and Acarnania in 1585 with Venetian support.

Members

* Gjin Bua Shpata, recognized as a ruler in Epirus and Aetolia by Simeon Uroš in 1359–1360 * Peter Bua ( 1450s), leader of the Albanian community in the

after the fall of the

Despotate of the Morea The Despotate of the Morea () or Despotate of Mystras () was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centuries. Its territory varied in size during its existence but eventually grew to include almost a ...

. * Theodore Bua ( 1479), Venetian mercenary captain *

Mercurio Bua Mercurio Bua (; ; some modern sources use ''Buia'') was an Albanians, Albanian condottiero (Stratioti captain) active in Italy. His father was Peter Bua, Pjetër Bua, leader of the Albanians in the Morea in the 15th century. Born in Nauplia in 147 ...

(1478–1542), Venetian mercenary captain, son of Pjetër Bua. * Andrés Bua, Stratiot of the Habsburg Empire of Charles V * Michele Bua, Stratioti captain in Flanders, France and Italy

Sources

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{Albanian noble families Bua family Medieval Albanian nobility Tribes of Albania