Dobromir Chrysos

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Prosacus castle plan , seat of Dobromir Chrysos

Dobromir in Byzantine sources usually Chrysos ( medium Greek Δοβρομηρός Χρυσός ; Macedonian Добромир Хрс ; Bulgarian Добромир Хриз ; † after 1202) was a feudal lord of the Cumans ( Vlachs ) and Bulgarians in eastern Macedonia and rebel against the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III. Through clever tactics and repeated changes of sides, the political adventurer was able to assert himself against his powerful neighbors in the region for several years.

Life

Chrysus' origins are obscure. When the two Assen brothers Theodor and Iwan sparked an armed uprising against Byzantium in the Balkans in 1186 and declared themselves independent, he initially remained officially allied with Byzantium.

Chrysos used the Bulgarian throne turmoil of 1196/97 to establish a quasi-autonomous rule in Macedonia, which was fought over between Byzantium and the Second Bulgarian Empire . In 1197/98 he brought Strumica into his power; He had Prosakos Castle (near Demir Kapija ) on Vardar expanded into a strong fortress. Alexios III started a campaign against the separatists from Kypsela in the spring of 1199 , but failed at the siege of Prosakos and was forced to make peace. On the initiative of the emperor, the daughter of the protostrator Manuel Kamytzes was married to Chrysos, for which he divorced his first wife.

When Manuel Kamytzes was captured by the Bulgarian leader Iwanko on a campaign in the spring of 1200 , it was not the emperor but Chrysos who bought his father-in-law after several months in prison. Both now turned together against Byzantium and in the spring of 1201 brought large parts of Macedonia and northern Thessaly under their control; Chrysos was able to add Prilep and Pelagonia in particular to his sphere of influence.

In view of the threat posed by Kamytzes and Chrysos, Emperor Alexios III sought. after an understanding with Tsar Kaloyan , especially since now also John Spyridonakes in the east adjacent theme Smolena had his own business. Alexios III had an army under the command of his son-in-law Alexios Palaiologos first militarily eliminate Spyridonakes.

At Chrysos, Alexios III. first of all to marriage diplomacy and offered the rebel the hand of his granddaughter Theodora Angelina ; the daughter of the Sebastokrator Isaak Komnenos had previously been married to Ivanko. After a long hesitation, Chrysus agreed and in return left Prilep and Pelagonia to the emperor, which forced Kamytzes to withdraw from Thessaly to Macedonia. In the spring of 1202 both rebels finally had to surrender to the emperor and his general Johannes Ionopolites . A little later, Krysus' dominion was incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire by Kaloyan.

Dobromir Chrysos is sometimes identified with the Bulgarian Boljar and Sebastokrator Stres († 1214) who, after the death of his uncle Kalojan in 1207, also controlled the area between Struma and Vardar as a Serbian vassal from Prossek . However, this equation is largely rejected by research.

swell

  • Niketas Choniates , Historia 487; 491; 502-508; 533-535 (ed. Jan-Louis van Dieten, CFHB Ser. Berol. Vol. 11, 1975); Orationes 106-110

literature

  • Charles M. Brand: Byzantium confronts the West, 1180-1204. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1968, ISBN 0-81-431764-2 , pp. 127-134.
  • Jean-Claude Cheynet: Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (= Publications de la Sorbonne. Series Byzantina Sorbonensia. Vol. 9). Reimpression. Publications de la Sorbonne Center de Recherches d'Histoire et de Civilization Byzantines, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85944-168-5 , p. 132 no.186.
  • Jan-Louis van Dieten: Niketas Choniates. Explanations of the speeches and letters together with a biography (= Supplementa Byzantina. Vol. 2). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York NY 1971, ISBN 3-11-002290-7 , pp. 129-136.
  • 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 .
  • Jürgen Hoffmann: Rudiments of territorial states in the Byzantine Empire (1071-1210). Ars Una, Neuried 1974, ISBN 3-89391-396-3 , pp. 47-50.
  • Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , p. 641.
  • 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. 356-357.
  • Alicia Simpson: Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0 , pp. 62-63, 309-310.
  • Paul Stephenson: Byzantium′s Balkan Frontier. A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-77017-3 , pp. 307-310.
  • Тома Томов: Добромир Хриз, който владееше Просек и Струмица . In: Анамнеза . Vol. 3, No. 1, 2008, ISSN  1312-9295 , pp. 97-115 ( PDF file; 2.2 MB ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , p. 29 f.
  2. ↑ Cf. Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , p. 32 f.
  3. ↑ See Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , p. 95.
personal data
SURNAME Dobromir Chrysos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Δοβρομηρός Χρυσός (Middle Greek); Добромир Хрс (Macedonian); Добромир Хриз (Bulgarian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bulgarian prince, rebel against the Byzantine emperor Alexios III.
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH after 1202