|
Theodore Komnenos Doukas ((ギリシア語:Θεόδωρος Κομνηνός Δούκας, ''Theodōros Komnēnos Doukas''); died ca. 1253), Latinized as Theodore Comnenus Ducas, was ruler of Epirus and Thessaly from 1215 to 1230 and of Thessalonica and most of the rest of Macedonia and western Thrace from 1224 to 1230, as well as the real power behind the rule of his sons John and Demetrios over Thessalonica in 1237–46. The scion of a distinguished aristocratic family related to the imperial Komnenos, Doukas, and Angelos dynasties, Theodore's life is unknown before the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204. After that, he served the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris for a few years, before being called to Epirus, where his bastard half-brother Michael I Komnenos Doukas had founded an independent principality. After Michael's death in 1215, Theodore sidelined the latter's underage and illegitimate son Michael II and assumed the governance of the Epirote state. Theodore continued his brother's policy of territorial expansion. Allied with Serbia, he expanded into Macedonia, threatening the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica. The capture of the Latin Emperor Peter II of Courtenay in 1217 opened the way to the gradual envelopment of Thessalonica, culminating in the city's fall in 1224. As ruler of Thessalonica, Theodore quickly declared himself emperor, challenging the Nicaean emperor John III Vatatzes's claims on the Byzantine imperial throne. In 1225, he advanced as far as the outskirts of Constantinople, but his attack against the seat of the much-reduced Latin Empire was delayed until 1230. In the event, Theodore diverted the army amassed to besiege Constantinople against Bulgaria, an ambivalent ally which threatened his northern flank. Theodore was defeated and captured at the Battle of Klokotnitsa, and spent the next seven years in captivity. In the meantime, he was succeeded by his brother Manuel. Manuel was unable to prevent the loss of Thrace, most of Macedonia, and Albania to the Bulgarian Tsar John II Asen, whose vassal Thessalonica now became, nor the splitting off of Epirus, where Michael II had seized control. Theodore was released in 1237 when his daughter Irene married John Asen, and quickly managed to regain control of Thessalonica, ousting Manuel. Having been blinded during his captivity, he installed his eldest son John as emperor in his stead, but remained the ''de facto'' regent of the state. Manuel tried to regain Thessalonica with Nicaean support, but a negotiated settlement was reached which gave him Thessaly and left Thessalonica and its environs to Theodore and John. In 1241, John III Vatatzes invited Theodore to visit Nicaea. He was welcomed and treated with great honour, but was effectively detained there until the spring of next year, when Vatatzes marched on Thessalonica with Theodore in tow. Theodore was sent in to negotiate with his son and convince him to accept demotion to the rank of Despot and to recognize the suzerainty of Nicaea. In 1246 Vatatzes overthrew Theodore's unpopular younger son Demetrios and annexed Thessalonica. Theodore influenced his nephew Michael II to launch an attack on Thessalonica in 1251, but in 1252, Vatatzes campaigned against them and forced Michael to come to terms. Theodore was taken prisoner and sent into exile in Nicaea, where he died in ca. 1253. ==Early life and career== Born about 1180/85, Theodore was a son of the ''sebastokrator'' John Doukas and of Zoe Doukaina. His paternal grandparents were Constantine Angelos and Theodora, a daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (reigned 1081–1118). Theodore's uncle, Andronikos, was the father of the emperors Isaac II Angelos (r. 1185–95 and 1203–04) and Alexios III Angelos (r. 1195–1203), who were thus Theodore's first cousins. As with most members of his family, he preferred to use the surname of "Doukas" or "Komnenos Doukas" (Κομνηνός ὁ Δούκας), while contemporaries variously called him "Doukas", "Komnenos", or even "Great Komnenos" (μέγας Κομνηνός), an appellation more usually found among the ruling family of the Empire of Trebizond. Theodore evidently preferred to be associated with the more successful dynasties of the Doukai and the Komnenoi, rather than the disastrous reign of the Angeloi; indeed the only medieval writers to call him "Angelos" were the later, hostile pro-Palaiologos historians Nikephoros Gregoras and Theodore Skoutariotes, while George Akropolites notably refers to him as "Komnenos" until his defeat at the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230 and as "Angelos" after. His early life is obscure. After the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople in 1204, he followed Theodore Laskaris to Asia Minor, where the latter soon founded the Empire of Nicaea. According to a letter of the Metropolitan of Corfu, George Bardanes, an apologist for Theodore, he provided valuable services to Laskaris, "taking many dangers for his sake and wresting many fortresses from the enemies and subduing them to Laskaris' rule", distinguishing himself through his valour and receiving many rewards from the Nicaean ruler. In ca. 1210, he was called by his half-brother Michael I Komnenos Doukas to join him in Epirus, where the latter had founded an independent Greek principality. The reason was that Michael's sole surviving son, the future Michael II Komnenos Doukas, was underage and illegitimate, while his other brothers were considered to lack the ability to rule. Laskaris willingly allowed Theodore to leave, but first he extracted an oath of allegiance to himself and his heirs. Already before his going to Epirus, Theodore had married Maria Petraliphaina, with whom he had four children. Traditionally, several scholars, such as Karl Hopf and Antoine Bon, have identified a certain Theodore, who appears as "lord of Argos" and the successor of Leo Sgouros in leading the resistance against the Crusaders in the northwestern Peloponnese, with Theodore Komnenos Doukas. This view has been questioned by Raymond-Joseph Loenertz, who argues that there is no evidence for such an assumption, while it is well established that Theodore was in Nicaean service at the time. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Theodore Komnenos Doukas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|