Demetrios Komnenos Dukas

Demetrios Komnenos Dukas ( Middle Greek Δημήτριος Κομνηνός Δούκας ; * around 1220 probably in Arta ; † probably 1247 in Lentiana ) was ruler of Thessaloniki from 1244 until his deposition in 1246 .

Life

Demetrios was the younger son of Theodoros I Komnenos Dukas and Maria Petraliphaina . Thus, on his father's side, he was a great-great-grandson of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Dukaina . His father ruled over the Byzantine successor state of Epirus since 1215 and claimed the imperial title in rivalry with John III after the conquest of the Latin kingdom of Thessaloniki in 1224 . Dukas Batatzes , the ruler of the Nikaia Empire .

After the devastating defeat in the Battle of Klokotnitsa on March 9, 1230 Demetrios was captured by the Bulgarians together with his parents and siblings . When his sister Irene married the widowed Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Assen II in Tarnowo in 1237 , Demetrios was released together with his father Theodoros, who had been blinded in the meantime, and his older brother Johannes Komnenos Dukas . They returned to Thessaloniki, where they instigated a revolt against Theodoros' brother Manuel Komnenos Dukas , who had ruled the city as a de facto Bulgarian vassal since 1230 . Manuel was overthrown and John installed as the new ruler over Thessaloniki. When John met the Nicean Emperor John III in 1242. subjugated, his younger brother Demetrios also received the despot title .

When his brother died in 1244, Demetrios took control of Thessaloniki. He showed little talent for government affairs and indulged in debauchery, so that he enjoyed little support from the leading aristocratic families of the city. When John III. stayed in Melnik during his offensive against the Bulgarian Empire , the magnates conspired against Demetrios and delivered the city to the imperial troops in December 1246. The despot was deposed and exiled to the fortress Lentiana in Bithynia , where he died a short time later. Thessaloniki was incorporated into the expanding Nikaia Empire.

swell

• Georgios Akropolites 38-45; 72–83 (ed. Peter Wirth , transl. Wilhelm Blum, BGL Vol. 28, 1989)
• Ephraim von Ainos 335–343 (ed. Immanuel Bekker , CSHB Vol. 21, 1840)

literature

• Κωνσταντίνος Βαρζός: Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών . Τόμος Β ' (= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. Τ. 20β , ISSN  1106-6180 ). Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1984 ( PDF file; 45.5 MB ), pp. 625–629, p. 884 No. 249.
• Божидар Ферјанчић: Деспоти у Византији и Јужнословенским земљама (= Посебна издања . Vol. 336; Византолошки институт Vol. 8.). Српска академија наука и уметности, Београд 1960, pp. 62–63, 87.
• John Van Antwerp Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A critical Survey from the late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor MI 1994, ISBN 0-472-08260-4 .
• Michael F. Hendy: Catalog of the Byzantine coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection . Vol. 4: Alexius I to Michael VIII, 1081-1261 , Part 2: The Emperors of Nicaea and Their Contemporaries (1204-1261) . Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC 1999, ISBN 0-88402-233-1 , pp. 597-598.
• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , p. 605.
• Ruth Macrides, Joseph A. Munitiz, Dimiter Angelov: Pseudo-Kodinos and the Constantinopolitan Court: Offices and Ceremonies (= Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies . Vol. 15). Ashgate, Farnham 2013, ISBN 978-0-7546-6752-0 , p. 390.
• Donald M. Nicol : The Despotate of Epiros. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1957.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , pp. 328-329.

Web links

• Demetrios Komnenos Doukas (Angelos) on Medieval Lands

Remarks

1. ↑ See EPLBHC 2, p. 328.
2. ↑ See Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , pp. 69, 157.
3. ↑ Cf. Nicol, Despotate , pp. 141, 146 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Johannes Komnenos Dukas	Ruler of Thessaloniki 1244–1246 as despot under the suzerainty of the Nikaia Empire	-