Alexius Slaw

Ruins of the Slav fortress in Melnik

Alexius Slaw ( Bulgarian Алексий Слав , scientific transliteration Aleksij Slav ) was a Bulgarian Boljar and a despot and independent ruler of the Rhodope Mountains at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, based in the fortress Zepina . In 1209 he moved his seat to Melnik .

Slaw came from the Assen family and was a nephew of the Tsar's brothers Ivan Assen I , Peter IV Assen and Kalojan . His mother was their sister. He was also related to the Tsar Boril and the Sebastokrator Stres .

When in 1207 Tsar Kalojan died during the siege of Thessaloniki under unexplained circumstances , Boril declared himself Tsar. In the following period he persecuted his closest relatives. So the successor to the throne Ivan Assen II fled to the Cumans . However, Alexius Slaw declared himself an independent ruler. In order to consolidate his position against the usurper, Slaw declared himself a vassal of the Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1208 . From the Latins (crusaders of the Fourth Crusade ) Alexius Slaw received the title of "Despot", recognition of his country and the underage, illegitimate daughter of Emperor Heinrich of Flanders as a wife. Nevertheless, Tsar Boril succeeded in 1208 to conquer Melnik and the entire region of the central Struma valley by the combined forces of Slavs and the Latins. In 1211, however, Slaw was able to recapture his capital. However, the union with the Crusaders lasted until 1216 when the young wife of Slaw died.

His relative Ivan Assen returned to Tarnowo , overthrew the usurper Boril and consolidated his power. However, it was too far away to ensure Slaw's safety. Slav's empire, which lay between the Latins and the despotate of Epirus , was in constant danger of being conquered by one of the two powers. In this situation Slaw decided to enter into an alliance with the despot of Thessaloniki Theodoros I Angelos and married the daughter of his brother-in-law Johannes Petraliphas . His actions were confirmed when Theodoros I was anointed by the Archbishop of Ohrid to the Byzantine emperor and thus the counter-emperor of Constantinople.

literature

• Hans-Joachim Härtel, Roland Schönfeld: Bulgaria. From the Middle Ages to the present. Friedrich Pustet Verlag, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-7917-1540-2 , pp. 128-138
• Иван Божилов, Васил Гюзелев: История на средновековна България VII-XIV век. (Bulgarian: Iwan Bozhilov, Vasil Gjuzelev: Iztorija na srednowekowna Balgaria / History of Medieval Bulgaria 7th to 14th Century ) Volume 1, Verlag Anubis, Sofia 2006, ISBN 954426204-0
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 1: Aaron - Azarethes . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2007, ISBN 978-2-503-52303-3 , pp. 146-147.