Thopia

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Coat of arms of the Thopia family

The Thopia (also called Topia , Thopias , Thopius and Theopias ) were an Albanian noble family between the 14th and 15th centuries. At the height of their power, their county (later: principality ) comprised the area between the Mat River in the north and the Seman River in the south in what is now Albania . The fortress of Kruja was the main family residence.

Early history (1329-1358)

The first mention of the name Thopia comes from the year 1329, when Tanusio Topia is referred to as one of the Counts of Albania. In 1338 Tanusio Topia is mentioned in a document as Count von Mati. According to the two historians Anamali and Prifti, Tanusio had a brother, Dominik, who was a high cleric and acted as an advisor in the royal court of Robert of Anjou .

Tanusio's son or brother, Andreas Thopia, fell in love with an illegitimate daughter, Roberts of Anjou, who was on her way to her wedding with an official in the Principality of Achaia and stopped in Durazzo ( Durrës ). According to Karl Hopf - and as mentioned by Gjon Buzuku - Andreas kidnapped and married her. The couple had two sons, Karl and Georg Thopia. The angry King Robert invited the couple to Naples under the pretext of reconciliation and had them executed.

The Thopia noble family converted from the Orthodox to the Roman Catholic Church during or before the time of Tanusio .

Under Karl Thopia (1358-1388)

Approximate sphere of influence of Karl Thopia in 1368, even before he was able to take Durazzo for the first time.

During the reign of Karl Thopias , the noble family reached the height of their power. After the death of Tsar Stefan Uroš IV. Dušan in 1355, Charles was able to take large parts of central Albania around 1358, which until then belonged to the Serbian Empire . In 1362 Charles's troops attacked the port city of Durazzo for the first time, which was in Angevin hands. Although he was unable to conquer the city, the rulers of Durazzo had to pay an annual tribute to his family. In 1368 he was finally able to take the city.

Around 1370, Karl and his army attacked the Muzaka's possessions and were able to cut off the area between the Shkumbin and Seman rivers. Now the area of ​​influence of the Thopias reached from the Mat in the north to the Seman in the south, with which they reached the height of their power. This aggressive behavior created a complicated situation and generated many enemies. In 1376, Louis of Navarre , who had inherited the rights of the Kingdom of Albania from his second wife, launched an attack on the city and was then able to take it. In 1383, however, Karl Durazzo recaptured.

The Muzakas allied with Balša II against the Thopias. At the beginning of 1385 Durazzo was conquered by Balša II during a surprise attack. Karl asked the Ottomans for help and was ultimately able to defeat Balša's troops at the Battle of Savra . Durazzo came back into power in the same year and he held the city until his death in 1388. Thereafter, it was inherited by his son Georg Thopia , who gave the city and the nearby lands to the Republic of Venice .

After Karl (1388-1415)

The fortress of Kruja

After Karl Thopia's death, his daughter Helena Thopia and his son Georg Thopia divided their father's sphere of influence between them. Georg kept the city of Durazzo and its surroundings, which he later handed over to the Republic of Venice, while his sister Helena ruled over the city and fortress of Kruja and its surroundings. Helena was married to the Venetian nobleman Marco Barbarigo . Count Niketa Thopia , a half-brother of George and Helena, ruled the region south of Durazzo. In 1403 he was able to incorporate the Helena area into his own. Niketa had good relations with Venice , which was interested in a buffer zone with the advancing Ottoman forces. In 1412 he suffered a heavy defeat against the armed forces of Theodor Muzakas II . Niketa was captured and could only be released again with the help of the Republic of Ragusa , but with the condition that he surrendered some areas around the Shkumbin River to the Muzakas. After his death in 1415, the fortress of Kruja fell to the Ottomans.

Later family members

A famous later family member was Tanush Thopia II , a commander in Skanderbeg's army and the commander of the Albanian Defense Forces during the siege of Kruja from 1466–1467.

Members of the noble family

Web links

Commons : Thopia  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Georg von Hahn: Journey through the areas of the Drin and Wardar: undertaken on behalf of the K. Academy of Sciences in 1863 . From the Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, 1867, p. 282 ( online version [accessed April 9, 2015]).
  2. ↑ Émile G. Léonard: Histoire de Jeanne 1re, pure de Naples, comtesse de Provence (1343-1382): La jeunesse de la pure Jeanne . Imprimerie de Monaco, 1932, p. 107 .
  3. ↑ Badia greca di Grottaferrata di Maria Santissima and Monastero esarchico di S. Maria di Grottaferrata (ed.): Bollettino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata . tape 32-33 . Scuola Tipografica Italo-Orientale "S.Nilo", 1978 ( online version [accessed April 9, 2015]).
  4. ↑ a b Skënder Anamali and Kristaq Prifti: Historia e Popullit shqiptar në katër vëllime . Botimet Toena, 2002, ISBN 99927-1-622-3 , p. 249 .
  5. ↑ Carl Hermann Friedrich Johann Hopf: History of Greece from the beginning of the Middle Ages to our time . B. Franklin, 1960 ( online version [accessed April 9, 2015]) were in the hands of Tanussio Thopia (1328-1338), to whom King Robert of Naples confirmed possession of the county of Mal in 1338. The last son or brother Andreas It was he who became related by marriage to the Eapet family. King Robert, Musachi relates, had chosen his natural daughter to be the wife of Bailli of Morea - perhaps Bertrand de Baux - and sent her to Durazzo, where Thopia was then staying. He fell in love he abducted and married her. Two sons, Karl and Georg, sprang from this marriage. But the spouses were soon hit hard by the vengeance of the angry father: under the appearance of reconciliation, he invited them both to Naples and had them executed there ; but the children, in whom the blood of the Angio-vins was spilled, were saved; Karl grew up in the strong castle Kroja, which he later expanded, not, as the legend reports, first founded, but Karl grew up determined to commit his father's murder avenge n ).
  6. ↑ Kristaq Prifti: The Truth on Kosova . Encyclopaedia Publishing House, 1993, p. 52 ( online version [accessed April 9, 2015] … Tanush Topia from a family which passed easily from Orthodoxy to Catholicism… ).
  7. ↑ Skënder Anamali and Kristaq Prifti: Historia e popullit shqiptar në katër vëllime . Botimet Toena, 2002, ISBN 99927-1-622-3 , p. 250 .
  8. ^ John Van Antwerp Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5 , pp. 384 .
  9. ↑ Monique O'Connell: Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice's Maritime State . In: Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science . JHU Press, 2009, ISBN 0-8018-9145-0 , p. 23 .
  10. ↑ Skënder Anamali and Kristaq Prifti: Historia e popullit shqiptar në katër vëllime . Botimet Toena, 2002, ISBN 99927-1-622-3 , p. 251-252 .