Constantine Komnenus Dukas

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Konstantin Komnenos Dukas ( Middle Greek Κωνσταντίνος Κομνηνός Δούκας ; * around 1172; † after 1242) was despot in Epirus and governor of Acarnania and Aetolia .

Life

Konstantin Dukas was a son of the Byzantine Sebastocrator Johannes Dukas and Zoe Dukaina . His brothers Michael and Theodor were successively rulers of Epirus, a Greek successor state to the Byzantine Empire, which fell apart as a result of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Presumably he is identical to that Konstantin Dukas, who on the night of April 13, 1204, immediately before the final conquest and sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders, competed with Konstantin Laskaris for the imperial crown in the Hagia Sophia .

Around 1208 Constantine accompanied the deposed Emperor Alexios III. , who had found refuge at the Epirotic court in Arta , in the Sultanate of the Rum Seljuks . Alexios' attempt to take control of the Nikaia Empire with the support of Sultan Kai Chosrau I failed in 1211 with the defeat in the Battle of Antioch on the Meander .

After his return, Constantine was appointed governor of Akarnania and Aetolia with his seat in Naupaktos , although it is unclear whether this happened around 1212 through his half-brother Michael I or through his brother Theodor, who took over rule in Epirus in 1215. In 1216 he took part in a campaign against the Bulgarian Empire . He managed to conquer Neopatra and Lamia from their Latin masters. The bishop of Naupaktos, Johannes Apokaukos , was expelled from his palace in 1220 and detained on an estate because he had protested against Constantine's "tyrannical" regime and in particular the arbitrary appropriation of church property. The conflict was only resolved in May 1221 at a synod ; later Constantine and Apokaukos cultivated friendly relations.

In connection with Theodors' coronation as a basileus in Thessaloniki in 1227 , Constantine, like his other brother Manuel , who was still alive , received the despot title. He probably did not take part in the devastating battle of Klokotnitsa on March 9, 1230, during which Theodore was captured by the Bulgarians. Constantine remained lord of Aetolia and Acarnania, although there was only a loosely dependent relationship with his brother Manuel, the new emperor in Thessaloniki. In 1237 he assisted Theodor's return from Bulgarian captivity to Thessaloniki.

Konstantin Komnenos Dukas is last mentioned in 1242, and he is believed to have died soon after. It is not known whether he was married or had descendants.

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literature

  • Michael Angold: Church and Society in Byzantium Under the Comneni, 1081-1261. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995, ISBN 0-521-26432-4 , pp. 219-222.
  • 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. 656–664 No. 170.
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Деспоти у Византији и Јужнословенским земљама (= Посебна издања . Vol. 336; Византолошки институт Vol. 8.). Српска академија наука и уметности, Београд 1960, pp. 53, 55, 61, 207.
  • 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 , pp. 128, 133.
  • Donald M. Nicol : The Despotate of Epiros. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1957, pp. 54-57 and passim .
  • Demetrios I. Polemis: The Doukai. A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography (= University of London Historical Studies. Vol. 22, ISSN  0076-0692 ). Athlone Press, London 1968, p. 109 no.73.
  • Günter Prinzing : Studies on provincial and central administration in the sphere of influence of the Epirotian rulers Michael I and Theodoros Dukas. Part 2. In: Ηπειρωτικά Χρονικά. Vol. 25, 1983, ISSN  1108-4758 , pp. 37-112, here: pp. 68-70.
  • 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 , p. 260.

Remarks

  1. Cf. Βαρζός, Γενεαλογία , p. 664.
  2. ^ So Angold, Church and Society , p. 219.
  3. Cf. Βαρζός, Γενεαλογία , p. 661 f.
  4. Cf. Βαρζός, Γενεαλογία , p. 663.

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