Momchil

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The construction of Pirot Castle in south-eastern Serbia is attributed to Momchil

Momchil (also Momcilo , Bulgarian Момчил , medium Greek Μομ [ι] τζίλος or Μομιτζίλας * to 1305; † 7. July 1345 at Peritheorion ) was a Bulgarian voivod and robber barons , who during the Byzantine civil war (1341-1347) as a quasi- independent ruler established in the Rhodope Mountains .

Life

Momchil came from a Bulgarian family of low origin who probably lived in the area between Pirin and Rhodope Mountains. With a crowd of Heidukes , he plundered the barely controlled Bulgarian- Byzantine border region in the Rhodope Mountains. Before 1341 Momchil had to flee to Byzantium, where he temporarily served as a stratiot in the service of Emperor Andronikos III. Palaiologos entered. Because he continued unperturbed his raids, he was finally forced to resign from the Byzantine army. He joined the Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV. Dušan and built a 2000 man strong company of Bulgarians and Serbs in Pirot .

After the death of Andronikos III. In 1341 a civil war broke out in the Byzantine Empire between the party of the still minor heir to the throne John V and the general Johannes Kantakuzenos , who also proclaimed himself emperor in Thrace . In this struggle, both sides called on foreign rulers for help. Kantakuzenos initially relied on an alliance with Stefan Dušan, and in 1343 his old friend Umur Bey von Aydin came to his aid, which strengthened his position considerably.

Momchil also swore allegiance to Kantakuzenos. who transferred to him the governorship of Merope , a disputed region in Thrace that was afflicted by Slavic brigands and stretched east of the Nestos to Komotini . Momchil pulled together a multiethnic troop of 300 mounted and 5,000 foot soldiers , with whom he supported Kantakuzenos on his campaigns in the first half of 1344.

Fortifications of Peritheorion (east of Xanthi ), scene of Momchil 's last stand in 1345

When Umur Bey was forced to withdraw his troops to Anatolia in the summer of 1344 , Momchil let himself be enticed by Kantakuzenos' opponents. Empress Anna Palaiologina , the mother and regent of Johannes V, honored his change of sides with the elevation to despot , while Kantakuzenos offered the defector the (lower-ranking) title of Sebastokrator . Momchil began to plunder the areas that were still loyal to Kantakuzenos and to rub up the few remaining Turkish troops; he also managed to burn some Turkish ships near Porto Lagos . During an armed clash near Komotini, Kantakuzenos narrowly escaped Momchil's cavalry.

Benefiting from his position in the no man's land between Serbia, Bulgaria and Byzantium, Momchil broke up with both conflicting parties in the civil war and in late summer rose to the de facto independent ruler of the Rhodope and the Aegean coast. With his troops he took the city of Xanthi , which he made his residence.

In the spring of 1345 Umur ordered his armed forces back to Europe to support Johannes Kantakuzenos in the overthrow of the separatist. The two armies met on July 7 at Peritheorion (near Xanthi). Momchil tried to evade the much larger enemy force and retreat behind the walls of Anastasioupolis-Peritheorion , but the citizens of the city closed the gates to him. In the following battle, the Turks destroyed Momchil's troops, who fell on the battlefield. His widow, unknown by name, was allowed to return to her Bulgarian homeland. After the rebel's death, the forces of the Kantakuzenos regained control of the Merope region.

reception

Momchil's eventful life and his historically transfigured role as a defender against the Turks secured him a place in local folklore and legends. The southern Bulgarian city of Momchilgrad is named after him. The same applies to Momchil Peak , a mountain on Greenwich Island in Antarctica.

swell

literature

  • Catherine Asdracha: Les Rhodopes au XIVe siècle. In: Revue des études byzantines. Vol. 34, 1976, pp. 175-209, here: pp. 201-202, ISSN  0766-5598 .
  • Mark C. Bartusis: Brigandage in the Late Byzantine Empire. In: Byzantion. Vol. 51, 1981, pp. 386-409, here: pp. 404-405, ISSN  0378-2506 .
  • Mark C. Bartusis: Chrelja and Momčilo. Occasional Servants of Byzantium in Fourteenth Century Macedonia. In: Byzantinoslavica , 41, 1980, pp. 201-221, ISSN  0007-7712 .
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Деспоти у Византији и Јужнословенским земљама (= Посебна издања . Vol. 336; Византолошки институт Vol. 8.). Српска академија наука и уметности, Београд 1960, pp. 12-13, 45, 165.
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Севастократори у Византији . In: Зборник радова Византолошког института . Vol. 11, 1968, ISSN  0584-9888 , pp. 141-192, 4shared.com (PDF; 4.0 MB), here: pp. 186-187.
  • 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 , pp. 303-305.
  • Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 1390-1391.
  • Detlef Kulman: Momčil , in: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 3. Munich 1979, p. 234 f.
  • Gyula Moravcsik : Byzantinoturcica. Vol. 2: Remnants of language from the Turkic peoples in the Byzantine sources (= Berlin Byzantine Works. Vol. 11). 3. Edition. EJ Brill, Leiden 1983, ISBN 90-04-07132-6 , p. 192.
  • 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 , pp. 149-150.
  • Erich Trapp , Hans-Veit Beyer, Ewald Kislinger: Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . 8. Fascicle: Μιχαὴλ - Ξυστούρης (= Publications of the Commission for Byzantine Studies . Vol. 1/8). Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7001-0775-7 , p. 25, no.19255.

Remarks

  1. ^ Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit , 8, p. 25.
  2. ^ Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium , p. 1390.
  3. ^ Soulis: Serbs and Byzantium , p. 149.
  4. Fine: Late Medieval Balkans , pp. 304 f.