The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages

Donald M. Nicol

Cambridge University Press, Aug 30, 1984 - History - 297 pages

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.

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A useful book on a successor state to the thirteenth Century Collapse of the Byzantine Empire. For a hundred years this former province was a possible rival for Balkan dominance with whatever power ...

Contents

• The restored Despotate 126785: 9
• Epiros between Italy and Byzantium12851306: 35
• French Byzantines and Venetians in Epiros12941318: 63
• the Orsini family131837: 81
• The Byzantine restoration133748: 107
• The Serbian occupation134859: 123
• The Serbian Despotate of Ioannina and the Albanian: 139
• Esau Buondelmonti and Carlo: 157
• The reunited Despotate141129: 179
• The Turkish conquest and the end of the Despotate: 197
• The administration and the economy: 217
• The church and cultural life: 233
• Epilogue: 249
• Index: 281

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages
• Author: Donald M. Nicol
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1984
• ISBN: 0521261902, 9780521261906
• Length: 297 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / General; History / Europe / Medieval; History / General