Vonko (fl. 1400-1401) was a "

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history, and language. They primarily live in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

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 ...

- Bulgarian-

Vlach Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula) ...

" who conquered Arta from the Shpata family in 1400, holding it until late 1401, when the Shpatas regained the town.

Life

Not much is known of him.Ellis, p. 151 In a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

monastic chronicle, the ''Chronicle of Proclus and Comnenus''Vakalopoulos, p. 154 (also known as the '' Chronicle of Ioannina'') from the Panteleimon monastery at

Ioannina Ioannina ( ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina (regional unit), Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus (region), Epirus, an Modern regions of Greece, administrative region in northwester ...

,Banač, p. 328Stoianovich, p. 132 the last inclusion mentions: "October 29, on Wednesday (1400), Despot Shpatas enters Eternity (dies). Immediately afterwards, his brother Skurra holds Arta. After some days, the Serb-Albanian-Bulgarian-Vlach Bokoes (Vonko) attacked and expelled Skurra, and started to round up all the elders and imprisoned them in the fort, and he destroyed their possessions." He treated the citizens badly, and they called on the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

for help. By the end of 1401, Vonko had been driven out from Arta. Skurra did not retain the town, instead his nephew Muriq Shpata took over Arta and Skurra took over Angelokastron. No more is mentioned of him. G. Schiro, who studied the genealogy of Shpata, assumed that the name (''Bokoes'' in the original text) is a variant of ''Bua'', based on linguistic data and the fact that ''Bua'' initially had the form of ''Buchia''.

Annotations

or BokoiSchiró G. p. 71 in other languages.

Notes

References

* *Ivo Banač
The national question in Yugoslavia: origins, history, politics
*Traian Stoianovich
Balkan worlds: the first and last Europe
*Apostolos Euangelou Vakalopoulo
Origins of the Greek nation: the Byzantine period, 1204-1461
*Steven G. Ellis, Lud'a Klusáková
Imagining frontiers, contesting identities
* {{s-end 14th-century births 15th-century deaths 15th-century Serbian people 15th-century Albanian people 15th-century Bulgarian people Arta, Greece Medieval Epirus Medieval Albanian nobility Aromanian people