Johannes Komnenos Asen

John Komnenos Asen ( Bulgarian Йоан Комнин Асен , Serbian - Cyrillic Јован Комнин Асен , medium Greek Ίωάννης Κομνηνός Ἀσάνης , † before 12. May 1363 ) was from 1345 until his death rulers of Valona , first as Serbian vassal and after 1355 as an independent prince.

Life

Johannes Asen came from the Bulgarian Boljar family Schischman , a branch of the House of Assen . He was a son of the despot Strazimir von Kran and the Keraza Petriza and thus a nephew of the Tsar Michael III. Schischman Assen († 1330). His brother Ivan Alexander ascended the throne of the Bulgarian tsar in 1331, while his sister Jelena married the Serbian king and later tsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan in 1332 . Soon afterwards, Johannes also entered his service, who hoped that he might have better career opportunities in the up-and-coming empire of the Nemanjids .

After Stefan Dušan to 1346 previously Byzantine Albania (the former subject Dyrrhachion had conquered), he gave his brother John, the high dignity of a despot and entrusted him as a prerogative the strategically important port city of Vlora with the hinterland to the strong fortresses Berat and Kanina . It is unclear whether John's authority as the Tsar's deputy was limited to the fortified cities or whether it also included the Albanian tribes of the region, especially the Muzaka .

John consolidated control of his new domain by presenting himself as the heir of the despots of Epirus . After 1350 he married Anna Palaiologina , the widow of Giovannis II Orsini († 1335), and took the nickname Komnenos , which was traditionally used by the Epirotian rulers; he signed his documents in Greek.

In the course of the disintegration of the Serbian Empire after Stefan Dušan's death in 1355, Johannes established himself as the independent lord of Valona; In 1358 he also formally broke away from Serbian suzerainty . He maintained good relations with the Republic of Venice , whose citizenship he had since 1353, and with Simeon Uroš Palaiologos of Thessaly , who also held suzerainty over Epirus after the Battle of Acheloos in 1359. Under John's reign, Valona achieved considerable prosperity through flourishing trade with Venice and the Republic of Ragusa .

Johannes Asen is mentioned for the last time in a Venetian trade document dated January 30, 1359. He most likely died of the plague that broke out in Valona in 1363. The rule took over his son Alexander Komnenos Asen , who developed the close relations with Ragusa . He fell in 1371 in the Battle of the Mariza against the Ottomans . A daughter of Asen was married to the Albanian prince Balša II .

swell

• Chronicle of Ioannina 75 (ed. Leandros Branuses, 1962)

literature

• Божидар Ферјанчић: Деспоти у Византији и Јужнословенским земљама. (= Посебна издања . Vol. 336; Византолошки институт . Vol. 8). Српска академија наука и уметности, Београд 1960, pp. 166–167, 177–181 `` passim '' .
• John Van Antwerp Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 1994, ISBN 0-472-08260-4 .
• Constantin Jireček : History of the Serbs. Volume 1: Until 1371. Perthes, Gotha 1911, p. 395. (Reprint: Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam 1967)
• George Christos Soulis: The Serbs and Byzantium during the Reign of Tsar Stephen Dušan (1331-1355) and his Successors. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC 1984, ISBN 0-88402-137-8 .
• Erich Trapp , Rainer Walther, Hans-Veit Beyer: Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . 5. Fascicle: Κ ... - Κομνηνούτζικος (= Publications of the Commission for Byzantine Studies . Volume 1/5). Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-7001-0330-1 , p. 222, no.12076.

Web links

• Ivan Komnenos Asen on Medieval Lands

Remarks

1. ↑ See PLP 5, p. 222.
2. ↑ Cf. Fine: Late Medieval Balkans. P. 320.
3. ↑ See Soulis: Serbs. P. 136.
4. ↑ Cf. Fine: Late Medieval Balkans. P. 347.
5. ↑ Cf. Fine: Late Medieval Balkans. P. 357.
6. ↑ See Soulis: Serbs. P. 137 f.