Margaritos from Brindisi

Margaritos of Brindisi (also Margaritone, Megareites) was a Norman pirate in the service of William II of Sicily (1166–1189) and Tankred of Lecce (1189–1194). He was born in Brindisi and was perhaps of Genoese origin. His life dates are probably 1149–1197.

Life

Margaritos excelled among other things when taking Thessaloniki in 1185 . He was one of the most important allies of Isaak Komnenos , the emperor of Cyprus and supported him against, among others, Isaac II Angelos, when he sent a fleet to Cyprus under Alexios Komnenos and Johannes Kontostephanos in 1187 . His base at that time seems to have been Palermo , which is where he took his prisoners.

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Wilhelm appointed him Count of Malta and enfeoffed him with the Ionian Islands , stolen by Byzantium in 1185 , with the stanzas as well as with Durazzo and other territories in Illyria . He subsequently took the title of "King of Epirus ". Corfu soon fell back to Byzantium, but remained plagued by Norman pirates ( Vetrano ).

1194 defeated Henry VI. the Normans and captured Naples and Palermo with the help of a fleet under the command of Markward of Annweiler . These cities were incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire. Henry VI. After his victory handed over the administration of Ithaca , Zakynthos and Kefalonia to his son-in-law Maio I. Orsini , who finally submitted to Venice in 1209 . Margaritos, who defended the fortress of Palermo until the surrender, was captured and blinded in 1194 . He died about three years later in German captivity.

literature

• Carlo Alberto Garufi : Margarito di Brindisi, conte di Malta e ammiraglio del re di Sicilia. In: Miscellanea di Archeologia, Storia e Filologia dedicata al Prof. Antonino Salinas nel XL Anniversario del suo Insegnamento Accademico. = Miscellanea Salinas. Virzi, Palermo 1907, pp. 273-282 .
• Jürgen Hoffmann: Rudiments of territorial states in the Byzantine Empire. (1071-1210). Studies on independence strivings and their relationship to the emperor and empire (= Miscellanea Byzantina Monacensia. H. 17, ISSN  0076-9347 ). Institute for Byzantine Studies and Modern Greek Philology at the University of Munich, Munich 1974, pp. 45–46, (also: Munich, University, Dissertation, 1972/1973).
• Andreas Kiesewetter: Megareites di Brindisi, Maio di Monopoli e la signoria sulle isole ionie (1185-1250). In: Archivio Storico Pugliese. Vol. 59, 2006, ISSN  0392-0054 , pp. 46-90.
• John Julius Norwich : The Kingdom in the Sun. 1130-1194. Longmans, London 1970, ISBN 0-582-12735-1 .

Web links

• The Genoese Annals of Ottobuono Scriba (1189-1196) (English) doc, 44 kB