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The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages
The district of Epiros in north-western Greece became an independent province following the Fourth Crusade and the dismemberment of the Byzantine Empire by the Latins in 1204. It retained its independence despite the recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks in 1261. Each of its rulers acquired the Byzantine titles of Despot, from which the term Despotate was coined to describe their territory. They preserved their autonomy partly by seeking support from their foreign neighbours in Italy. The fortunes of Epiros were thus affected by the expansionist plans of the Angevin kings of Naples and the commercial interests of Venice. Until 1318 it was governed by direct descendants of its Byzantine founder. Thereafter it was taken over first by the Italian family of Orsini, then conquered by the Serbians, infiltrated by the Albanians, and appropriated by an Italian adventurer, Carlo Tocco. Like the rest of Byzantium and eastern Europe it was ultimately absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century. The Despotate of Epiros illuminates part of Byzantine history and of the history of Greece in the Middle Ages.
312 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 1984
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About the author
Donald M. Nicol
17 books21 followersDonald MacGillivray Nicol was an English Byzantinist.
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October 31, 2025
Donald M. Nicol Studies The Late Middle Age Byzantine Successor State, The Despotate Of Epirus, During The Period Ranging From 1267-1479.
The Despotate of Epiros was one of a number of Byzantine successor states that formed in the wake of the Venetian allies' partitioning of Constantinople & the Byzantine empire after the conclusion of the Fourth Crusade, which lasted from 1202-4 CE. There were three of these independent states in the beginning - The Despotate of Epiros, & the Empires of Nicaea & Trebizond - but others were created as the territories were partitioned into manageable sections, with Boniface of Montferrat establishing the Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1205 alongside the Duchy of Athens, which was ruled by Otto de la Roche, & in the same year William of Champlitte & Geoffrey I of Villehardoin founded the Principality of Achaea, both of which were vassal states subject to Boniface's short-lived hegemony.
The Despotate of Epiros was originally founded in 1204 by Michael I Komnenus Doukas, an illegitimate son of John Doukas, who was a powerful military commander in the Byzantine empire known as a sebastokrator. After briefly fighting for the Latins during their invasion of Greece, Michael parted ways with Boniface's army & journeyed to the city of Arta, where he established himself as ruler while working with its governor to begin a dynasty that he hoped would continue through the ages & maintain Epiros's freedom from foreign dominion. "Epiros means 'the mainland'. Surrounded by sea on the west and south and by high mountains on the north and east, its geography promotes a spirit of independence. At the beginning of the thirteenth century its independence became a fact. The rest of the Greek world was to be subjected to the Latins, to the French and Italian crusaders and their descendants. But Epiros was for a long time to remain free from their control and influence." Donald M. Nicol's words at the beginning of his 1984 study, The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479 - A contribution to the history of Greece in the middle ages, echo one of the main themes of this exciting, detailed chronicle of what is possibly the most historically fascinating region in all of Greece.
This digitally printed, trade paperback edition of Donald M. Nicol's The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479 - A contribution to the history of Greece in the middle ages, was originally published in hardcover format in 1984 by the Cambridge University Press & features a 251-page main text that is divided into twelve chapters & an epilogue. The chronological accounting ends after chapter ten, & the final two chapters explore general topics such as the region's administration & economy, as well as its church & cultural life. Supplementary materials include a detailed map of Epiros in the fourteenth century & genealogical trees depicting the lineages of the sebastokrator John Doukas, Maio Orsini, Stephen Uroš II Milutin, Peter Boua, Leonardo I Tocco, & Charles I of Anjou, in addition to a twenty-one page bibliography & index at the back of the volume.
Chapter 1, The Restored Despotate - 1267-1285, discusses the dynasty left by the Despot Michael II to his sons, Nikephoros & John, who ruled jointly in Epiros & Thessaly, respectively, & their persistent efforts to maintain their independence in the face of encroaching powers, such as the newly-restored Byzantine empire & the Angevins of Naples & Sicily, led by Charles I of Anjou-Provence. Nicol does an admirable job explaining the different regions & factions in this chapter, such as Old & New Epiros, & how the Angevins were able to maximize their defeat of the Hohenstaufens & effectively assume control of the regions in Greece which the latter had obtained through marriage alliances with Epiros, via the Treaty of Viterbo. Despite the setbacks caused by the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, a fair amount of the political activity in Greece during this period can be traced back to this agreement, which created a six-year window during which Charles of Anjou was to reconquer Constantinople & as much Byzantine-held territory as he could, in exchange for receiving one third of the lands gained as a result.
In Chapter 2, Epiros between Italy and Byzantium - 1285-1306, Nichols canvasses the shifting relationship between the Angevin monarchy in Naples, the independent despotate in Epiros, & the Byzantine empire as these three powers vied for supremacy over a large portion of Greece, fighting several significant campaigns & forging marriage alliances which changed the playing field & created complex diplomatic webs of intrigue that yielded fruit for the rulers of Epiros as they struggled to maintain their autonomy. Charles I of Anjou had died in 1285, & his son Charles II had invested his own son Philip with the principality of Taranto, to which the Angevin holdings in Greece, which included the Principality of Achaea & the Duchy of Athens, were to be held in fief. Charles II was able to increase his chances of annexing Epiros to the Tarantene subject territories by brokering a marriage between his son Philip & Thamar of Epiros which occurred in 1294, the terms of which contained a clause that allowed the hereditary Greek family to retain possession only under a very specific set of circumstances, otherwise Philip would become ruler. Overall, this is a very exciting & eventful chapter, with Nichols' steady, dependable prose narrating each key development with clarity & coherence that does not miss a step.
Chapter 3, French, Byzantines and Venetians in Epiros - 1294-1318 covers a multitude of topics, among them the smart diplomacy of the Byzantine emperor Andonikos II Palaiologos in relation to the Epiros & Thessaly regions, & the Despot of Epiros Thomas Komnenodoukas' domestic policies toward the Republic of Venice. After years of the two regions operating either as independent despotates or Angevin fiefs, the newly-restored Byzantine empire could only benefit from bringing the sizeable & profitable provinces of Epiros & Thessaly back into the fold, & this would be achieved by successfully negotiating two important marriage unions, one of them with the basilissa, Anna of Epiros, who was not only in an ideal position of power to bring the proposal to fruition, but also a Byzantine sympathizer. With Anna's help, Andronikos II betroths his granddaughter, the daughter of his son & co-emperor Michael IX, Anna Palaiogina, to Anna of Epiros's son Thomas, Despot of Epiros, most likely in 1307, & then in 1309, also a conjectured date, he marries off his natural daughter Eirene to John II of Neopatras, ruler of Thessaly, thus attaining two political victories which would go a long way to achieving the unity that the empire so desperately needed. Despite the Serenissima & Despotate of Epiros being two competing economic powers, there were a few wealthy Venetian families with vested interests in the region who were so favored by Thomas, that to defend the hereditary rights of one Venetian clan he even issued an edict known as a chrysobull which was phrased in the style & fashion of a Byzantine emperor.
Epiros did not remain under the control of the descendants of Michael I Komnenus Ducas forever, & in Chapter 4, The Italian inheritance: The Orsini family 1318-37, Dr. Nicol explores the aftermath of the death of Thomas Komnenodoukas, the final Greek potentate to rule the despotate, & the rise of the powerful Orsini family who reigned over it for almost two decades in the fourteenth century. The Orsini were a powerful clan in the Italian nobility possessing strong ties to Rome, with several of its members elected to the papacy, & they also played a minor role in affairs both on the Italian peninsula & in the Greek Mediterranean. With the rise of Nicholas Orsini & his initial submission to the suzerainty of the Greek emperor of Constantinople, Andronikos II Palaiologos, the Despotate's boundaries were rewritten to include only the lands in the south portion, excluding the northern region & its important city of Ioannina.
Nicholas Orsini, however, has no intention of being content with Arta & a portion of Old Epiros, & he soon organizes a siege on Ioannina in 1323 but the attack is resisted by the defenders of the city & ultimately proves to be his undoing, as he is supplanted by his brother John, who subsequently becomes the next despot as John II Orsini. In a calculated stratagem John approaches the citizens of Ioannina, who were loyal to the Byzantine emperor, & asks their permission to assume control under the condition that he ruled the city as a kephale, or governor, under Byzantine sovereignty. The Ioanninans agree to this arrangement, & it is in this manner that John II Orsini regains control of Old Epiros, thus reuniting the despotate & successfully increasing his power base. He also manages to reunite Epiros & Thessaly, after the death of the archon & sebastokrator Stephen Gabrielopoulos creates an opportunity that John takes advantage of by moving troops into several vital cities in the region, according to the History of the Byzantine general & future emperor, John Cantacuzene.
While this study's subject matter is probably what many would consider to be intermediate-to-advanced, the author's informative narrative style & crisp writing render it surprisingly smooth sailing for readers who possess some degree of familiarity with Byzantine history in this period. The reviewer had previously read John Julius Norwich's Byzantium: The Decline and Fall, which provides a very solid foundation of the Byzantine successor states & how they interacted with the Greek empire as well as with each other, & he did not experience much difficulty in understanding the narrower scope of events to be found in this book.
It would not be long until the Byzantine empire again claimed sovereignty over Epiros, & in Chapter 5, The Byzantine succession - 1337-48, the author limns the methods by which Andonikos III Palaiologos once more asserts the imperial prerogative over Epiros & reintegrates the despotate into the empire's territories. Following the death of John II Orsini, the people of Epiros hailed his son, who eventually becomes Nikephorus II, & his widow Anna as the hereditary powerholders in the region, & the emperor arranges a betrothal between the eldest daughter of his Grand Domestic, John Cantacuzene, & the young ruler. Nikephorus mysteriously disappears, however, only to resurface in 1338 in the care of Catherine of Valois, the regent for the Latin holdings in Achaia since the death of her husband, Philip of Taranto, & an Angevin-aligned ruler who seeks to utilize her possession of the boy as part of a politically-motivated scheme to appeal to those Epirote citizens who favored independent rule as an Angevin fief as an alternative to Byzantine suzerainty. Despite the plotline's many twists & turns Dr. Nicol does a magnificent job of ensuring his chronicle is crisp, fast-moving, & descriptive when the events require it to be so, & the chapters are divided in a way that makes sense, beginning & ending with the different periods of rule by the various foreign & domestic powers.
The rise of the Serbian warlord Stephen Dušan compounded with John Cantacuzene's weakened political position in the Epiros & Thessaly regions to create an unstable status quo that was a fertile environment for the ensuing Serbian invasion & occupation of these areas, as narrated by the author in Chapter 6, The Serbian occupation -1348-59. The imperial sebastocrator John Angelos's passing from the Black Death in 1347 once again created a power vacuum in Thessaly, & Dušan subdues the region by employing one of his most skilled subalterns, Gregory Preljub, whose troops occupy it with very little resistance in 1348. The Serbian despot had harbored & mentored Cantacuzene during the Byzantine civil war that had wracked the empire from 1341-47, but with the newly strengthened political position of John's rival in Constantinople, Alexios Apokaukos, the Serbians switch sides & betray their former ally. Their invasion of Epiros proceeds in much the same way as it did in Thessaly, with Stephen installing his half-brother, Symeon Uroš, as ruler of the Aitolia region. The Serbian occupation was relatively short-lived, however, & upon Dušan's death in 1355 his empire swiftly degenerates into a group of independent principalities who held fealty to no one's rule but their own. Nikephoros II lived on for three more years to create havoc & unrest in Thessaly & Epiros before he died in battle fighting the Albanians near Acheloos in 1359.
The passing of the despot Thomas Preljubović proved to be the catalyst which ushered in a new era of Italian rule in Epiros, one which is the primary subject in Chapter 8, The Italian Restoration: Esau Buondelmonti and Carlo Tocco - 1384-1411. Thomas's widow, Maria Angelina, was the daughter of a former Serbian emperor, Symeon Uroš, & was heiress to the Despotate which gave incentive to her family to find her a desirable husband who would then inherit that powerful title. At the time of Thomas's death, Esau Buondelmonti, an Italian nobleman & adventurer, was being held captive at the city of Ioannina, & according to one history of the period, Maria became romantically involved with him at this time, marrying him a short time later with her brother Joaseph Uroš joining them to assist in conducting affairs of state. Nicol describes this capable trio's early reforms as they worked together to undo the damage done by Thomas's savage reign: "The prisons were emptied, the torture chambers destroyed. Taxes were lowered and penalties mitigated. The mitaton, the enforced levy for the maintenance of the army, was abolished. All hereditary properties were restored to their rightful owners. It was like the calm after the storm of the tyranny of Thomas Preljubović;".
The most reliable accounting of the reign of the Tocco comes from the anonymously-composed epic poem, The Tocco Chronicle, which covers the period spanning 1375-1425, but the Tocco first entered Byzantine politics in 1352 when Leonardo I Tocco became Duke of Leukas, & later inherited two other Ionian islands, Cephalonia & Zante, following the death of Nikephoros II Orsini in 1378. The Tocco were a wealthy Italian family with ties to the Orsini, & they had become affiliated with the Buondelmonti when Leonardo married Maddalena Buondemonti, whose brother was Esau Buondelmonti, sometime before fall of 1361. Their children were Carlo I & Leonardo II Tocco, the latter of whom became his brother's Grand Constable during Carlo I's reign as Despot of Ioannina after their father Leonardo I's death in 1376. Carlo married into the immensely wealthy & powerful Florentine Acciajuoli clan, to the daughter of Nerio Acciajuoli, Duke of Athens, Megara, & Corinth, & through a series of successful military campaigns fought against the Albanians who controlled the city of Arta & several strategically placed castles & fortresses located throughout Epiros, he was able to annex these territories to his own. Upon the death in 1411 of Carlo's uncle, Esau Buondelmonti, Tocco assumed his position as Despot of Ioannina after a united vote in his favor conducted by the city's highest-ranking noblemen.
The remaining sections, Chapter 9, The reunited Despotate - 1411-29 & Chapter 10, The Turkish conquest and the end of the Despotate - 1429-79, chronicle the final period of the despotaton, when it reached the zenith of its power under the Tocco shortly before it began crumbling away at an alarming rate. Chapter nine covers Carlo I Tocco's later reign as he consolidates his rule by receiving the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos's recognition of his titles & holdings, & by his reunification of the Epirote cities of Ioannina & Arta under a single ruling family. This was achieved when Leonardo II Tocco was nominated as Arta's ruler after its archons surrendered the city to the Despot Carlo I Tocco in 1416 following a brief military campaign.
Chapter ten recounts the aftermath of Carlo I Tocco's death in 1429 & the partitioning of his despotate between his nephew, Carlo II Tocco, & his three illegitmate sons, Ercole, Tourno & Menuno. Unhappy with their cousin Carlo's designation as primary beneficiary to his deceased uncle's holdings, two of the three brothers enlist the dubious aid of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, the father of Mehmet II the Conqueror, whose army had recently conquered Thessalonica from the Byzantine empire. Much to their regret, the brothers learn that to invite the Ottomans into their country was tantamount to allowing it to be conquered that much easier & hastening their own downfall.
Carlo II Tocco watched, practically helpless, while his inheritance dwindled away little by little. Ioannina was lost to the conquering Turkish army in autumn of 1430, & Carlo's plotting with the King of Aragon & Naples, Alfonso V, angered the Venetian Republic, who disinherit him as one of their citizens & confiscate his property in 1446. Six months after his death in 1448, Arta also falls to the Turks, leaving Carlo II's three children - Leonardo III, Giovanni, & Antonio, with little more than the four Ionian Islands of Leukas, Ithaka, Cephalonia & Zante as their birthright. After he reaches his majority, Leonardo III retains the islands by sending a yearly tribute of 4,000 ducats to the Sultan, but Mehmet II eventually finds a pretext to send an invading fleet in 1479 & he flees to the court of Alfonso of Naples, who provides him with estates in Calabria suitable to his standing.
Overall, Donald M. Nicol's The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479 - A contribution to the history of Greece in the middle ages is a truly outstanding study that excels in every requisite area of narrative storytelling, rendering it into an upper tier of quality & polish while making it a fantastic choice for intermediate-level Byzantine enthusiasts who are hungry to learn more about the age of the successor states that followed the Fourth Crusade, on through the period of Constantinople's recovery by the Palaiologi in 1261, all the way up to the Turkish Conquest which followed the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Epiros & its amazing history are superbly brought to life by Donald M. Nicol, who was a premier Byzantinist at the top of his field & the author of a number of titles which, after completing this exceptional volume, the reviewer certainly plans to undertake at some point in the future. Thank you so very much for reading, I hope that you enjoyed the review!
The Despotate of Epiros was one of a number of Byzantine successor states that formed in the wake of the Venetian allies' partitioning of Constantinople & the Byzantine empire after the conclusion of the Fourth Crusade, which lasted from 1202-4 CE. There were three of these independent states in the beginning - The Despotate of Epiros, & the Empires of Nicaea & Trebizond - but others were created as the territories were partitioned into manageable sections, with Boniface of Montferrat establishing the Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1205 alongside the Duchy of Athens, which was ruled by Otto de la Roche, & in the same year William of Champlitte & Geoffrey I of Villehardoin founded the Principality of Achaea, both of which were vassal states subject to Boniface's short-lived hegemony.
The Despotate of Epiros was originally founded in 1204 by Michael I Komnenus Doukas, an illegitimate son of John Doukas, who was a powerful military commander in the Byzantine empire known as a sebastokrator. After briefly fighting for the Latins during their invasion of Greece, Michael parted ways with Boniface's army & journeyed to the city of Arta, where he established himself as ruler while working with its governor to begin a dynasty that he hoped would continue through the ages & maintain Epiros's freedom from foreign dominion. "Epiros means 'the mainland'. Surrounded by sea on the west and south and by high mountains on the north and east, its geography promotes a spirit of independence. At the beginning of the thirteenth century its independence became a fact. The rest of the Greek world was to be subjected to the Latins, to the French and Italian crusaders and their descendants. But Epiros was for a long time to remain free from their control and influence." Donald M. Nicol's words at the beginning of his 1984 study, The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479 - A contribution to the history of Greece in the middle ages, echo one of the main themes of this exciting, detailed chronicle of what is possibly the most historically fascinating region in all of Greece.
This digitally printed, trade paperback edition of Donald M. Nicol's The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479 - A contribution to the history of Greece in the middle ages, was originally published in hardcover format in 1984 by the Cambridge University Press & features a 251-page main text that is divided into twelve chapters & an epilogue. The chronological accounting ends after chapter ten, & the final two chapters explore general topics such as the region's administration & economy, as well as its church & cultural life. Supplementary materials include a detailed map of Epiros in the fourteenth century & genealogical trees depicting the lineages of the sebastokrator John Doukas, Maio Orsini, Stephen Uroš II Milutin, Peter Boua, Leonardo I Tocco, & Charles I of Anjou, in addition to a twenty-one page bibliography & index at the back of the volume.
Chapter 1, The Restored Despotate - 1267-1285, discusses the dynasty left by the Despot Michael II to his sons, Nikephoros & John, who ruled jointly in Epiros & Thessaly, respectively, & their persistent efforts to maintain their independence in the face of encroaching powers, such as the newly-restored Byzantine empire & the Angevins of Naples & Sicily, led by Charles I of Anjou-Provence. Nicol does an admirable job explaining the different regions & factions in this chapter, such as Old & New Epiros, & how the Angevins were able to maximize their defeat of the Hohenstaufens & effectively assume control of the regions in Greece which the latter had obtained through marriage alliances with Epiros, via the Treaty of Viterbo. Despite the setbacks caused by the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, a fair amount of the political activity in Greece during this period can be traced back to this agreement, which created a six-year window during which Charles of Anjou was to reconquer Constantinople & as much Byzantine-held territory as he could, in exchange for receiving one third of the lands gained as a result.
In Chapter 2, Epiros between Italy and Byzantium - 1285-1306, Nichols canvasses the shifting relationship between the Angevin monarchy in Naples, the independent despotate in Epiros, & the Byzantine empire as these three powers vied for supremacy over a large portion of Greece, fighting several significant campaigns & forging marriage alliances which changed the playing field & created complex diplomatic webs of intrigue that yielded fruit for the rulers of Epiros as they struggled to maintain their autonomy. Charles I of Anjou had died in 1285, & his son Charles II had invested his own son Philip with the principality of Taranto, to which the Angevin holdings in Greece, which included the Principality of Achaea & the Duchy of Athens, were to be held in fief. Charles II was able to increase his chances of annexing Epiros to the Tarantene subject territories by brokering a marriage between his son Philip & Thamar of Epiros which occurred in 1294, the terms of which contained a clause that allowed the hereditary Greek family to retain possession only under a very specific set of circumstances, otherwise Philip would become ruler. Overall, this is a very exciting & eventful chapter, with Nichols' steady, dependable prose narrating each key development with clarity & coherence that does not miss a step.
Chapter 3, French, Byzantines and Venetians in Epiros - 1294-1318 covers a multitude of topics, among them the smart diplomacy of the Byzantine emperor Andonikos II Palaiologos in relation to the Epiros & Thessaly regions, & the Despot of Epiros Thomas Komnenodoukas' domestic policies toward the Republic of Venice. After years of the two regions operating either as independent despotates or Angevin fiefs, the newly-restored Byzantine empire could only benefit from bringing the sizeable & profitable provinces of Epiros & Thessaly back into the fold, & this would be achieved by successfully negotiating two important marriage unions, one of them with the basilissa, Anna of Epiros, who was not only in an ideal position of power to bring the proposal to fruition, but also a Byzantine sympathizer. With Anna's help, Andronikos II betroths his granddaughter, the daughter of his son & co-emperor Michael IX, Anna Palaiogina, to Anna of Epiros's son Thomas, Despot of Epiros, most likely in 1307, & then in 1309, also a conjectured date, he marries off his natural daughter Eirene to John II of Neopatras, ruler of Thessaly, thus attaining two political victories which would go a long way to achieving the unity that the empire so desperately needed. Despite the Serenissima & Despotate of Epiros being two competing economic powers, there were a few wealthy Venetian families with vested interests in the region who were so favored by Thomas, that to defend the hereditary rights of one Venetian clan he even issued an edict known as a chrysobull which was phrased in the style & fashion of a Byzantine emperor.
Epiros did not remain under the control of the descendants of Michael I Komnenus Ducas forever, & in Chapter 4, The Italian inheritance: The Orsini family 1318-37, Dr. Nicol explores the aftermath of the death of Thomas Komnenodoukas, the final Greek potentate to rule the despotate, & the rise of the powerful Orsini family who reigned over it for almost two decades in the fourteenth century. The Orsini were a powerful clan in the Italian nobility possessing strong ties to Rome, with several of its members elected to the papacy, & they also played a minor role in affairs both on the Italian peninsula & in the Greek Mediterranean. With the rise of Nicholas Orsini & his initial submission to the suzerainty of the Greek emperor of Constantinople, Andronikos II Palaiologos, the Despotate's boundaries were rewritten to include only the lands in the south portion, excluding the northern region & its important city of Ioannina.
Nicholas Orsini, however, has no intention of being content with Arta & a portion of Old Epiros, & he soon organizes a siege on Ioannina in 1323 but the attack is resisted by the defenders of the city & ultimately proves to be his undoing, as he is supplanted by his brother John, who subsequently becomes the next despot as John II Orsini. In a calculated stratagem John approaches the citizens of Ioannina, who were loyal to the Byzantine emperor, & asks their permission to assume control under the condition that he ruled the city as a kephale, or governor, under Byzantine sovereignty. The Ioanninans agree to this arrangement, & it is in this manner that John II Orsini regains control of Old Epiros, thus reuniting the despotate & successfully increasing his power base. He also manages to reunite Epiros & Thessaly, after the death of the archon & sebastokrator Stephen Gabrielopoulos creates an opportunity that John takes advantage of by moving troops into several vital cities in the region, according to the History of the Byzantine general & future emperor, John Cantacuzene.
While this study's subject matter is probably what many would consider to be intermediate-to-advanced, the author's informative narrative style & crisp writing render it surprisingly smooth sailing for readers who possess some degree of familiarity with Byzantine history in this period. The reviewer had previously read John Julius Norwich's Byzantium: The Decline and Fall, which provides a very solid foundation of the Byzantine successor states & how they interacted with the Greek empire as well as with each other, & he did not experience much difficulty in understanding the narrower scope of events to be found in this book.
It would not be long until the Byzantine empire again claimed sovereignty over Epiros, & in Chapter 5, The Byzantine succession - 1337-48, the author limns the methods by which Andonikos III Palaiologos once more asserts the imperial prerogative over Epiros & reintegrates the despotate into the empire's territories. Following the death of John II Orsini, the people of Epiros hailed his son, who eventually becomes Nikephorus II, & his widow Anna as the hereditary powerholders in the region, & the emperor arranges a betrothal between the eldest daughter of his Grand Domestic, John Cantacuzene, & the young ruler. Nikephorus mysteriously disappears, however, only to resurface in 1338 in the care of Catherine of Valois, the regent for the Latin holdings in Achaia since the death of her husband, Philip of Taranto, & an Angevin-aligned ruler who seeks to utilize her possession of the boy as part of a politically-motivated scheme to appeal to those Epirote citizens who favored independent rule as an Angevin fief as an alternative to Byzantine suzerainty. Despite the plotline's many twists & turns Dr. Nicol does a magnificent job of ensuring his chronicle is crisp, fast-moving, & descriptive when the events require it to be so, & the chapters are divided in a way that makes sense, beginning & ending with the different periods of rule by the various foreign & domestic powers.
The rise of the Serbian warlord Stephen Dušan compounded with John Cantacuzene's weakened political position in the Epiros & Thessaly regions to create an unstable status quo that was a fertile environment for the ensuing Serbian invasion & occupation of these areas, as narrated by the author in Chapter 6, The Serbian occupation -1348-59. The imperial sebastocrator John Angelos's passing from the Black Death in 1347 once again created a power vacuum in Thessaly, & Dušan subdues the region by employing one of his most skilled subalterns, Gregory Preljub, whose troops occupy it with very little resistance in 1348. The Serbian despot had harbored & mentored Cantacuzene during the Byzantine civil war that had wracked the empire from 1341-47, but with the newly strengthened political position of John's rival in Constantinople, Alexios Apokaukos, the Serbians switch sides & betray their former ally. Their invasion of Epiros proceeds in much the same way as it did in Thessaly, with Stephen installing his half-brother, Symeon Uroš, as ruler of the Aitolia region. The Serbian occupation was relatively short-lived, however, & upon Dušan's death in 1355 his empire swiftly degenerates into a group of independent principalities who held fealty to no one's rule but their own. Nikephoros II lived on for three more years to create havoc & unrest in Thessaly & Epiros before he died in battle fighting the Albanians near Acheloos in 1359.
The passing of the despot Thomas Preljubović proved to be the catalyst which ushered in a new era of Italian rule in Epiros, one which is the primary subject in Chapter 8, The Italian Restoration: Esau Buondelmonti and Carlo Tocco - 1384-1411. Thomas's widow, Maria Angelina, was the daughter of a former Serbian emperor, Symeon Uroš, & was heiress to the Despotate which gave incentive to her family to find her a desirable husband who would then inherit that powerful title. At the time of Thomas's death, Esau Buondelmonti, an Italian nobleman & adventurer, was being held captive at the city of Ioannina, & according to one history of the period, Maria became romantically involved with him at this time, marrying him a short time later with her brother Joaseph Uroš joining them to assist in conducting affairs of state. Nicol describes this capable trio's early reforms as they worked together to undo the damage done by Thomas's savage reign: "The prisons were emptied, the torture chambers destroyed. Taxes were lowered and penalties mitigated. The mitaton, the enforced levy for the maintenance of the army, was abolished. All hereditary properties were restored to their rightful owners. It was like the calm after the storm of the tyranny of Thomas Preljubović;".
The most reliable accounting of the reign of the Tocco comes from the anonymously-composed epic poem, The Tocco Chronicle, which covers the period spanning 1375-1425, but the Tocco first entered Byzantine politics in 1352 when Leonardo I Tocco became Duke of Leukas, & later inherited two other Ionian islands, Cephalonia & Zante, following the death of Nikephoros II Orsini in 1378. The Tocco were a wealthy Italian family with ties to the Orsini, & they had become affiliated with the Buondelmonti when Leonardo married Maddalena Buondemonti, whose brother was Esau Buondelmonti, sometime before fall of 1361. Their children were Carlo I & Leonardo II Tocco, the latter of whom became his brother's Grand Constable during Carlo I's reign as Despot of Ioannina after their father Leonardo I's death in 1376. Carlo married into the immensely wealthy & powerful Florentine Acciajuoli clan, to the daughter of Nerio Acciajuoli, Duke of Athens, Megara, & Corinth, & through a series of successful military campaigns fought against the Albanians who controlled the city of Arta & several strategically placed castles & fortresses located throughout Epiros, he was able to annex these territories to his own. Upon the death in 1411 of Carlo's uncle, Esau Buondelmonti, Tocco assumed his position as Despot of Ioannina after a united vote in his favor conducted by the city's highest-ranking noblemen.
The remaining sections, Chapter 9, The reunited Despotate - 1411-29 & Chapter 10, The Turkish conquest and the end of the Despotate - 1429-79, chronicle the final period of the despotaton, when it reached the zenith of its power under the Tocco shortly before it began crumbling away at an alarming rate. Chapter nine covers Carlo I Tocco's later reign as he consolidates his rule by receiving the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos's recognition of his titles & holdings, & by his reunification of the Epirote cities of Ioannina & Arta under a single ruling family. This was achieved when Leonardo II Tocco was nominated as Arta's ruler after its archons surrendered the city to the Despot Carlo I Tocco in 1416 following a brief military campaign.
Chapter ten recounts the aftermath of Carlo I Tocco's death in 1429 & the partitioning of his despotate between his nephew, Carlo II Tocco, & his three illegitmate sons, Ercole, Tourno & Menuno. Unhappy with their cousin Carlo's designation as primary beneficiary to his deceased uncle's holdings, two of the three brothers enlist the dubious aid of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, the father of Mehmet II the Conqueror, whose army had recently conquered Thessalonica from the Byzantine empire. Much to their regret, the brothers learn that to invite the Ottomans into their country was tantamount to allowing it to be conquered that much easier & hastening their own downfall.
Carlo II Tocco watched, practically helpless, while his inheritance dwindled away little by little. Ioannina was lost to the conquering Turkish army in autumn of 1430, & Carlo's plotting with the King of Aragon & Naples, Alfonso V, angered the Venetian Republic, who disinherit him as one of their citizens & confiscate his property in 1446. Six months after his death in 1448, Arta also falls to the Turks, leaving Carlo II's three children - Leonardo III, Giovanni, & Antonio, with little more than the four Ionian Islands of Leukas, Ithaka, Cephalonia & Zante as their birthright. After he reaches his majority, Leonardo III retains the islands by sending a yearly tribute of 4,000 ducats to the Sultan, but Mehmet II eventually finds a pretext to send an invading fleet in 1479 & he flees to the court of Alfonso of Naples, who provides him with estates in Calabria suitable to his standing.
Overall, Donald M. Nicol's The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479 - A contribution to the history of Greece in the middle ages is a truly outstanding study that excels in every requisite area of narrative storytelling, rendering it into an upper tier of quality & polish while making it a fantastic choice for intermediate-level Byzantine enthusiasts who are hungry to learn more about the age of the successor states that followed the Fourth Crusade, on through the period of Constantinople's recovery by the Palaiologi in 1261, all the way up to the Turkish Conquest which followed the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Epiros & its amazing history are superbly brought to life by Donald M. Nicol, who was a premier Byzantinist at the top of his field & the author of a number of titles which, after completing this exceptional volume, the reviewer certainly plans to undertake at some point in the future. Thank you so very much for reading, I hope that you enjoyed the review!
January 17, 2022
This book is absolutely delightful. Sadly neglected by Byzantine and western historians alike, this great work covers the history of medieval epirus. Learn about Byzantine despots, Turkish incursions, Albanian warlords, Italian adventures, and much more!
April 30, 2020
perfect... the Despotat of Epirus is a facinating story
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