Manuel Komnenos Doukas (
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: Μανουήλ Κομνηνός Δούκας,
Manouēl Komnēnos Doukas) (c. 1187 – c. 1241), often inaccurately called Manuel Angelos (a name he never used), was ruler of Thessalonica from 1230 to 1237 and of Thessaly from 1239 until his death in c. 1241.
Life
Manuel was a legitimate son of the
sebastokratōrSebastokratōr was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence. The word is a compound of "sebastos" Sebastokratōr was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used...
John DoukasJohn Doukas or Ducas , was the eldest son of Constantine Angelos by Theodora Komnene, the seventh child of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina, from whose family name John Doukas took his own.-Career:Doukas is first attested in an imperial document in 1166...
. He was thus a first cousin of the emperors
Isaac II AngelosIsaac II Angelos was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204....
and
Alexios III AngelosAlexios III Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.- Early life:Alexios III Angelos was the second son of Andronikos Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronicus was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus...
, and a brother of
Michael I Komnenos DoukasMichael I Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas , often inaccurately called Michael Angelos , was the founder and first ruler of the principality of Epirus from 1205 until his death in 1215.-Life:...
and
Theodore Komnenos DoukasTheodore Komnenos Doukas was ruler of Epirus from 1215 to 1230 and of Thessalonica from 1224 to 1230.-Life:...
of
EpirusThe Despotate or Principality of Epirus was one of the Byzantine Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire that emerged in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond...
. Probably after 1225 or 1227 he was given the court dignity of
despotesDespot , was a senior Byzantine court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent...
by his brother, Theodore. At about the same time he married, perhaps as his second wife, Maria, the illegitimate daughter of
Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria-Early rule:He was a son of Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria and Elena . Elena, who survived until after 1235, is sometimes alleged to be a daughter of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia, but this relationship is questionable and would have caused various canonical impediments to marriages between various descendants...
, helping to cement his brother's alliance with this country.
After his brother's defeat and capture by the
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
ns at the
Battle of KlokotnitsaThe Battle of Klokotnitsa occurred on 9 March 1230 near the village of Klokotnitsa . As a result, the Second Bulgarian Empire emerged once again as the most powerful state in Eastern Europe and the power of the Despotate of Epirus faded...
in 1230, Manuel was allowed by Ivan Asen II to rule in Thessalonica and its environs with the title of
despotes. At one point Manuel tried to establish contacts with the Papacy, but in 1232 the longstanding breach with the
Eastern PatriarchateThe Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
at Nicaea was finally healed.
Manuel ruled peacefully until 1237, when his widowed father-in-law Ivan Asen II married Irene, the daughter of the captive Theodore. At this point Theodore and his sons were released from captivity and resolved to recover the rule of Thessalonica. Manuel was unsuccessful in seeking the support of Prince Geoffrey II Villehardouin of
AchaeaAchaea is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of West Greece. It is situated in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. The capital is Patras. The population exceeds 300,000 since 2001.-Geography:...
, and was forced to flee to
Asia MinorAsia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
.
After a spell among the Seljuks of
RumThe Sultanate of Rum , also known as the Anatolian Seljuk State , was a Turkic state centered in in Anatolia, with capitals first at İznik and then at Konya. Since the court of the sultanate was highly mobile, cities like Kayseri and Sivas also functioned at times as capitals...
and in
NicaeaThe Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...
, Manuel returned to
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
with Nicaean support in 1239 and captured several fortresses including
LarissaLarissa is the capital and biggest city of the Thessaly region of Greece and capital of the Larissa regional unit. It is a principal agricultural centre and a national transportation hub, linked by road and rail with the port of Volos, the city of Thessaloniki and Athens...
and Pharsalos from Theodore's son
John Komnenos DoukasJohn Komnenos Doukas was ruler of Thessalonica from 1237 until his death in 1244....
, establishing himself as ruler of Thessaly. Theodore and John had to agree to a division of the family lands. When Manuel died about 1241, the area passed into the hands of his other nephew,
Michael II Komnenos DoukasMichael II Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas , often called Michael Angelos in narrative sources, was the ruler of Epirus from 1230 until his death in 1266/68.-Life:...
of Epirus.
Family
By his wife Maria of Bulgaria, Manuel may have had at least one daughter:
- Helena Komenene Doukaina, who married William of Verona, tetrarch of Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...