Michael Asanes

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Michael Asanes ( Middle Greek Μιχαὴλ Ἀσάνης ; Bulgarian Михаил Асен ; † after 1355) was a Byzantine aristocrat of Bulgarian origin. Together with his brother Andreas Asanes , he was designated governor of Morea in 1354/55 .

Life

Michael was a member of a branch of the Bulgarian ruling family Assen (Greek Asanes ), who had lived in the Byzantine Empire since the late 13th century and had numerous high officials and dignitaries until the end of the empire in the 15th century. Through his father Isaak Palaiologos Asanes he was a grandson of Tsar Ivan Assen III. (1279-1280) and Irene Palaiologina . Michael had an older brother Andronikos , a younger brother Andreas and a sister Irene . His cousin Irene Asanina was with Emperor John VI. Kantakuzenos married.

Little is known about Michael's childhood and youth, but he and his siblings must have grown up and brought up close to the Byzantine imperial court. During the Byzantine Civil War in 1342 he was together with his father as a supporter of the anti-emperor John VI. imprisoned. In 1351 he is mentioned as a participant in the Second Palamitic Council in Constantinople .

After the deposition of John VI. In December 1354 Michael and Andreas Asanes were commissioned by his rival Emperor Johannes V to expel the despot Manuel Kantakuzenos , who was appointed governor in 1349, from Morea . When they arrived in the Peloponnese in autumn 1355, the Asanes brothers won the support of some local archons who had previously rebelled against the despot in vain. Manuel Kantakuzenos withdrew behind the walls of Mistra , while the Asanoi sacked the Venetian possessions of Modon and Coron in order to gather more supporters by distributing booty. The Venetians then sided with Manuel, as did the vast majority of the peninsula's population. In view of the hopelessness of their endeavor, Michael and Andreas Asanes returned to Constantinople. John V was forced to formally recognize Manuel Kantakuzenos as imperial governor, but de facto as the autonomous ruler of Morea.

The further fate of Michael Asanes is unknown, but he was probably no longer alive in 1383, the year Manuel Kantakuzenos died.

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literature

  • 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 .
  • Ljubomir Maksimović: The Byzantine Provincial Administration under the Paloiologoi. Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam 1988, ISBN 90-256-0968-6 , p. 54.
  • Donald M. Nicol : The Byzantine family of Kantakouzenos (Cantacuzenus) approx. 1100-1460. A genealogical and prosopographical study (= Dumbarton Oaks Studies. Vol. 11). Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington DC 1968, pp. 75, 123.
  • Erich Trapp , Rainer Walther, Hans-Veit Beyer: Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . 1. Fascicle: Ἀαρών - Ἀψαρᾶς (= publications of the Commission for Byzantine Studies . Vol. 1/1). Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1976, ISBN 3-7001-0169-4 , p. 143 No. 1512.

Web links

Remarks

  1. See PLP 1, p. 143.
  2. See PLP 1, p. 143.
  3. See Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , p. 328.