Theodoros I. Komnenos Dukas

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Theodor I. Komnenos Dukas as basileus together with St. Demetrios , patron of Thessaloniki

Theodoros I Angelos Komnenos Dukas ( Middle Greek Θεόδωρος Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Δούκας Theodōros Angelos Komnēnos Doukas , * 1180/85; † after 1253 in Nicene custody) was byzantine ruler from 1215 to 1230 in Thessaloniki and from 1230 against Epirus and between 1230 .

Life

Theodoros I was born between 1180 and 1185 as the son of the sebastocrator Johannes Dukas and Zoe Dukaina. He was a cousin of the Byzantine emperors Isaac II. Angelus and Alexios III. Angelos and half-brother of Michael I. Komnenos Dukas , the founder of the Despotate Epirus.

After initial service with Theodor I. Laskaris von Nikaia , he went to his half-brother Michael in Epirus around 1210. After his murder, Theodoros succeeded him to the throne. As the new despot, he allied himself with Albanian and Serbian tribes and led an expansive policy against the Kingdom of Thessaloniki . He took advantage of the conflict between the Bulgarians and Thessaloniki and captured Macedonia and Thessaly in 1216 . The Bulgarian Boljar Alexius Slaw , despot of Melnik and ruler of the Rhodope Mountains , became Theodoros vassal.

In 1217 the new Latin emperor Peter von Courtenay besieged the Adriatic coastal city of Durazzo on the way to Constantinople, without success. On his way through Macedonia he was arrested by Theodoros.

In 1220 he succeeded in taking the fortress of Veria and in 1221 that of Serres and Drama from the crusaders and building a ring around Thessaloniki. In 1224 Theodoros finally succeeded in taking Thessaloniki and destroying the Latin Kingdom of Thessaloniki. In his new capital, he was crowned as emperor of Thessaloniki by the autocephalous archbishop of Ohrid Demetrios Chomatos in 1225 or 1227 . After this coronation at the latest, he used his entire rule for the restoration of the Byzantine Empire with Constantinople as its capital. In 1225 his troops succeeded in taking further fortresses from the crusaders in western Thrace and in the Aegean region . For the siege of Adrianople and the further fight against the Crusaders, Theodoros entered into an alliance with the powerful Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Assen II .

Even before a siege of Constantinople, Theodoros broke the alliance and peace with the Bulgarians and marched into Thrace with a large army. On 9 March 1230 it came to the battle of klokotnitsa , was defeated in the Theodoros. Theodoros himself and his family were taken prisoner. Faced with the strategic defeat, Ivan had a victory column erected in the Church of the Forty Martyrs in the Bulgarian capital, on which it was recorded that the whole country from Adrianople to Durazzo (Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly) now belonged to the Bulgarians. The lands that were not incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire were under Theodoros brothers Manuel Komnenos Dukas (who ruled as Bulgarian vassal Thessaloniki) and Konstantin Komnenos Dukas (who ruled Akarnania ) as well as the nephew Michael II Komnenos Dukas (who ruled the unconquered part of Epirus ruled) divided.

In 1237 Theodoros was released by Ivan, who had meanwhile married his daughter Irene . Theodoros returned to Thessaloniki, deposed his brother Manuel, who had previously rebelled against the Bulgarian tsar, and his son Johannes Komnenos Dukas as despot of Thessaloniki. After this intervention, Theodoros tried the scattered forces of his families against the Emperor of Nikaia Johannes III. Unite Dukas Batatzes .

After the death of Ivan Assen II in 1241, the Emperor of Nikaia, John III, invited Theodoros to a conference that was to work out a common policy against the Bulgarians and the Crusaders. Theodoros was arrested. Then John went with him to Thessaloniki, where Theodoros was able to negotiate with his son that he accepted the rule of Nikaia as the only Byzantine. In 1246, however, Johannes attacked Thessaloniki, deposed the youngest son of Theodoros, Demetrios Komnenos Dukas , and incorporated the city and the empire into the Empire of Nikaia. In 1252, the Nicean emperor had Theodoros arrested again for renewed attempts at secession and taken prisoner to Nikaia, where he died around 1253.

family

Theodoros Komnenos Dukas was married to Maria Dukaina Komnena Petraliphaina , a daughter of the Sebastokrator Johannes Petraliphas . From this marriage he had two sons and two daughters:

Web links and sources

predecessor Office successor
Michael I. Komnenos Dukas Despot of Epiros
1215-1230 		Michael II Angelus
Demetrius of Montferrat
(Latin King of Thessaloniki) 		Emperor of Thessaloniki
1225–1230 		Manuel Komnenos Dukas
personal data
SURNAME Theodoros I. Komnenos Dukas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Theodoros I. Angelos Komnenos Dukas; Theodōros Angelos Komnēnos Doukas; Θεόδωρος Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Δούκας
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Despot of Epirus, anti-emperor in Thessaloniki
DATE OF BIRTH between 1180 and 1185
DATE OF DEATH around 1253
Place of death Nicene imprisonment