Nikephorus I. Comnenus Dukas Angelos

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Nikephoros I Komnenos Dukas or Nikephoros I Angelos ( Greek : Νικηφόρος Α΄ Κομνηνός Δούκας, Nikēphoros I Komnēnos Doukas ; * around 1240; † between September 3, 1296 and July 25, 1298) was despot of Epirus from 1266/1268.

biography

Nikephoros was the eldest son of Michael II. Komnenos Dukas and Theodora Petraliphaina. In 1256 he married Maria Laskarina von Nikäa († 1258) in Thessalonike , daughter of the emperor Theodor II. Laskaris von Nikäa , who gave him the title of despot .

In the following years Nikephoros took part in his father's fight against both the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII and in September 1259 in the deployment to the Battle of Pelagonia , in which his father changed sides the night before the conflict. After Nicaea had conquered the despotate of Epirus almost completely by the end of 1259, he went to the Kingdom of Sicily , where his brother-in-law Manfred , King of Sicily , provided him with fresh troops with which he came to help his father in the reconquest of Epirus. In 1264 they suffered another defeat and were forced to cede part of the land to Michael VIII. As part of the peace treaty, Nikephoros was married in 1264 to Anna Kantakuzena-Palaiologina († after 1313), daughter of Johannes Kantakuzenos, niece of Emperor Michael VIII.

In 1267/8 Nikephoros succeeded his father as ruler of Epirus, and now had to deal with Charles of Anjou , who in the meantime had overthrown Manfred in the Kingdom of Sicily. In 1272 Dyrrhachium was lost to the Anjou . When the Byzantines violated the interests of Nikephorus in their retaliatory campaign against Karl in 1274, he took up negotiations with Karl and concluded an alliance with him in 1276, which also included John I Dukas of Theassalia, Nikephorus' half-brother. The coalition succeeded in conquering a number of cities, including Butrinto in 1278. In 1279, Nikephoros recognized Karl as his liege lord and also gave Butrinto to him. With Charles' defeat a little later, Nikephorus lost his property in Albania to the Byzantines. The end of the coalition came in 1282 with the Sicilian Vespers , in which Michael's diplomacy played a certain role that led to the loss of the island of Sicily for Charles .

After the restoration of Orthodoxy in 1282 by Emperor Andronikos II. Palaiologos, Nikephorus renewed his alliance with Byzantium with the help of his wife Anna, who traveled to Constantinople and negotiated the treaty. As a result, he was a tool in her hand that openly represented the interests of the Byzantine court in Epirus. In 1284 they lured Michael Komnenus, the son of Johannes Dukas of Thessaly , with the prospect of an alliance to Epirus, where he was only arrested and then sent to Constantinople. As a result, Nikephoros was embroiled in a war with his half-brother, which in 1285 ravaged the area around Arta in retaliation . On a second trip to Constantinople, Anna tried her daughter Thamar with Michael IX. Marrying , the son of Emperor Andronikos II. , with the aim of binding the families even closer together, failed. Nevertheless, her young son Thomas Komnenos Dukas received the title of despot from the emperor .

The anti-Byzantine anti-Byzantine nobility led Nikephorus to start negotiations with Charles II of Naples in 1291 , thus provoking a Byzantine invasion, which in turn strengthened the alliance with Naples . Charles's intervention by his vassals Riccardo Orsini , Count of Kephalonia and Florence of Hainaut , Prince of Achaia was able to stop the Byzantine advance. Nikephorus married his daughter Maria to Giovanni I Orsini , the heir of Kephalonia and his daughter Thamar Angelina to Karl's son Philip I of Taranto , whereby Thamar was allowed to maintain her Orthodox faith. The wedding took place in L'Aquila in September 1294 and included the surrender of some Epirotic coastal fortresses as trousseau. In return, Philip was given the rights to his father's claims in Greece.

The inevitable tensions between the Greek landed gentry and their Angevin lord gave the nephew of Nikephorus, ruler of Thessaly, the opportunity to intervene and take down most of the fortresses that Philip had received, but the Italians managed to recapture most of these castles before a peace treaty could be concluded in 1296. Nikephoros died a short time later, between September 1296 and July 1298. His underage son Thomas succeeded him under the reign of his mother Anna.

family

From his first wife Maria, a daughter of Emperor Theodor II. Dukas Laskaris , Nikephoros had a daughter, Katharina, who was married to Friedrich Prince of Castile (* 1224, † 1277).

Nikephoros had three children from his second wife Anna Kantakouzena, the niece of Emperor Michael VIII:

• Thamar ; ∞ Philip I of Taranto ( House of Anjou )
• Thomas I. Komnenos Dukas , his successor in Epirus
• Maria; ∞ Giovanni I. Orsini of Kephalonia (1304-1317); her sons Nikola Orsini and Giovanni II Orsini later became despots of Epirus.

literature

• Alexander Kazhdan : Nikephorus I. Comnenus Doukas. In: Derselbe (ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Volume 3, Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1991, p. 1478.
• John Van Antwerp Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans. A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest . Ann Arbor, 1987.
• Andreas Thiele: Narrative genealogical family tables on European history. Volume III: European Imperial, Royal and Princely Houses. Supplementary volume. RG Fischer, 1994, plate 206.
• John Julius Norwich : Byzantium. The rise of the Eastern Roman Empire. Econ, Düsseldorf / Munich 1993, Volume III, pp. 234,239,273,280,283,300.
• Andreas Kiesewetter: The beginnings of the government of King Charles II of Anjou (1278–1295). The Kingdom of Naples, the County of Provence and the Mediterranean region at the end of the 13th century. Matthiesen, 1999, pp. 76, 78, 148, 249, 259 A, 350-356, 360, 364.

predecessor	Office	successor
Michael II Angelus	Despot of Epirus 1266 / 68-1296 / 98	Thomas