Johannes Dukas (Sebastokrator)

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Johannes Dukas ( Middle Greek Ἰωάννης Δούκας ; * around 1125/27; † around 1200) was a Byzantine aristocrat from the Angeloi dynasty . He is the progenitor of the Angelos Komnenos Dukas line , which founded the despotate of Epirus after the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade .

Life

Johannes Dukas was the eldest son of Admiral Konstantin Angelos and Theodora Komnena , a daughter of Emperor Alexios I and Irene Dukaina . He was thus a nephew of John II and a cousin of Manuel I. John had six siblings, including the brothers Andronikos and Alexios . Instead of the surname Angelos, like his brother Andronikos, he always used the name Dukas because of its higher prestige.

Under Manuel I, Johannes Dukas first appeared in 1166 as a participant in a synod . In 1176 he was involved as regimental commander in the Battle of Myriokephalon , in which the Byzantine army was decisively defeated by the Seljuk Sultan Kılıç Arslan II .

After his nephew Isaak Angelos murdered Stephanos Hagiochristophorites , the powerful henchman Andronikos' I , on September 11, 1185 and fled to Hagia Sophia , Johannes Dukas also joined the putschists . According to the historians Niketas Choniates and Theodoros Skutariotes , he even offered himself as the new emperor in place of the overthrown Andronikos. In view of his already advanced age, however, massive resistance arose in the assembled crowd, so that Isaac Angelus ascended the throne in Constantinople .

Johannes was honored by his nephew with the high dignity of a sebastokrator (vice emperor). In the war against the rebellious Bulgarians and Cumans under Theodor-Peter and Iwan Assen , he took over the supreme command of the Byzantine troops in 1186. Because Johannes had married his eldest son Isaac to a daughter of the rebellious general Alexios Branas , he was recalled the following year by the suspicious emperor and replaced by the blind Johannes Kantakuzenos . In 1191 Johannes Dukas accompanied his nephew on another campaign against the Bulgarians, who inflicted a heavy defeat on the Byzantines at Trjawna .

In April 1195 Johannes Dukas supported the usurpation of his nephew Alexios III. , in whose coronation ceremony he participated in a prominent position. When Alexios III, who had not lost a male heir and had recently lost two of his sons-in-law, fell seriously ill in the spring of 1199, John appeared again briefly as a pretender to the throne .

Johannes Dukas was married (possibly in a second marriage) to Zoe Dukaina , with whom he had five sons ( Isaak, Alexios, Theodoros , Manuel , Konstantin ) and three daughters. His illegitimate son Michael founded the Despotate of Epirus in 1204. After the conquest of the Latin kingdom of Thessalonike (1224), Theodorus and after him Manuel claimed in rivalry with John III. the Byzantine imperial title.

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literature

  • §Κωνσταντίνος Βαρζός: Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών § (= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. Τ. 20α , ZDB ID 420491-8 ). Τόμος Α '. Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1984, pp. 641–649 No. 90, digitized version (PDF; 280 MB) .
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Севастократори у Византији . In: Зборник радова Византолошког института 11, 1968, ISSN  0584-9888 , pp. 141–192, there pp. 164–166, digitized .
  • Donald M. Nicol : The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479. A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1984, ISBN 0-521-13089-1 , pp. 1-3.
  • Demetrios I. Polemis: The Doukai. A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography (= University of London Historical Studies. Vol. 22, ISSN  0076-0692 ). Athlone Press, London 1968, pp. 85-92, No. 40.
  • Alicia Simpson: Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study (Oxford Studies in Byzantium). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0 , p. 56.
  • 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. 289-292.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Johannes Dukas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἰωάννης Δούκας (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine general and Sebastocrator, uncle of Isaac II.
DATE OF BIRTH around 1125
DATE OF DEATH around 1200