Medieval Thessaly

Political History

Medieval Thessaly (Greek: Θεσσαλία, Thessalia) remained under Byzantine rule until 1204– - 1205, when it became part of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, formed after the Fourth Crusade had conquered Constantinople. The area, partly overlapping with what was known as Great Wallachia (Greek: Μεγάλη Βλαχία, Megalē Blakhia), was conquered by Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epirus in 1215. The region remained attached to the domains of Theodore and his successors in Thessalonica until 1239, when the deposed ruler of Thessalonica Manuel Komnenos Doukas conquered it from his nephew John Komnenos Doukas and secured its status as a separate section of the family holdings. His death in c. 1241 brought the area to the ruler of Epirus, Michael II Komnenos Doukas, on whose death in c. 1268 Thessaly became the holding of a distinct, illegitimate, branch of the family. The extinction of this branch in 1318 was followed by a continuation of local independence, in increasingly chaotic conditions. In the 1330s a new attempt to assert Epirote control resulted in a Byzantine invasion, which brought eastern, and then all Thessaly, under imperial control by 1335 or 1336. The Byzantine reconquest did not last long, and by 1348 the local nobility was forced to recognize the authority of the expansionist Serbian emperor (tsar) Stefan Uroš IV Dušan. The deaths of Dušan and his governor led to further unrest, but by 1359 Thessaly became the center of the holdings of Dušan's half-brother Simeon Uroš Palaiologos, who reigned from Trikkala and styled himself emperor of Serbians and Greeks. This period of relative prosperity continued after the line of Serbian rulers ended in c. 1373, and the new rulers of Thessaly, the Angeloi Philanthropenoi, recognized Byzantine suzerainty until 1394, when the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

Rulers of Thessaly

• Theodore Komnenos Doukas (1215 - 1230), arkhōn, from 1227 emperor
  
• Manuel Komnenos Doukas (1230– - 1237 and 1239 - 1241), despotēs
  
• John Komnenos Doukas (1237 - 1239), despotēs
  
• Michael Komnenos Doukas (1241–c. - 1268), despotēs
  
• John I Doukas (c. 1268– - 1289), sebastokratōr
  
• Constantine Doukas (1289 - 1303), sebastokratōr
  
• John II Doukas (1303 - 1318), sebastokratōr
  
• Stephen Gabrielopoulos (1318– - 1332), arkhōn
  
• John Orsini (1332 - 1335), despotēs
  

(Byzantine Rule 1335- 1348)

• Michael Monomachos (1335 - 1342), governor
  
• John Angelos (1342 - 1348), governor
  

(Serbian Rule 1348– - 1356)

• Gregory Preljub (1348 - 1356), kaisar (Caesar)
  
• Nikephoros Orsini (1356– - 1359), despotēs
  
• Simeon Uroš Palaiologos (1359–c. - 1370), emperor of Serbians and Greeks
  
• John Uroš Doukas Palaiologos (c. 1370–c. - 1373), emperors of Serbians and Greeks
  

(Byzantine Suzerainty c.1373 - 1394)

• Alexios Angelos Philanthropenos (c. 1373–c. - 1390), kaisar (Caesar)
  
• Manuel Angelos Philanthropenos (c. 1390– - 1394), kaisar (Caesar)
  

(Ottoman rule from 1394)

References

• The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
  
• John V.A. Fine Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1987.
  
• George C. Soulis, The Serbs and Byzantium, Athens, 1995.
  

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