The Bulgarian despots (prosopography)

This is a prosopographical survey: it examines the holders of the title through their kinship, territories, and political careers. The description “Bulgarian despot” does not necessarily imply Bulgarian origin or investiture by a Bulgarian tsar. It includes people whose careers were substantially connected with Bulgaria, even when they were foreigners or had received the dignity outside Tarnovo. Conversely, Bulgarians such as John Komnenos Asen, whose rule belonged to a different political setting, are not included. The dignity of despot was not a permanent administrative office with uniform duties. It signified exceptionally high rank, often reinforced by marriage into a ruling dynasty, but its holders exercised powers ranging from a position at court to almost independent government.

Alexios Slav is the earliest well-attested despot in this group. He was a nephew of the first Asen rulers and a first cousin of Tsar Boril, probably the son of an unnamed sister. After Kaloyan’s death in 1207, Slav challenged Boril and apparently commanded considerable military support, but failed to take Tarnovo. Following the Bulgarian defeat at Philippopolis in July 1208, he allied himself with the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders. Slav accepted Henry’s overlordship, received military assistance, and married the emperor’s daughter in November of that year. It was Henry who conferred the dignity of despot upon him. In the following years Slav fought alongside the Latins, including in campaigns against Boril.

After Henry’s death in 1216, Alexios Slav changed his political alignment and married into the circle of Theodore Komnenos Doukas. He transferred his centre from Tsepina to the fortified town of Melnik and built a lordship encompassing the Rhodopes and parts of eastern Macedonia. A contemporary Byzantine writer portrays him as an effectively independent ruler who joined different allies without submitting permanently to any of them. His sigillion—a sealed charter—of January 1220 reveals an organized chancery and quasi-regal claims; it calls the monastery of the Virgin Spelaiotissa “despotic and imperial.” The last certain record of Slav as an active ruler dates from 1228. After Ivan Asen II’s victory at Klokotnitsa in 1230, his lands were probably incorporated into Bulgaria, while Slav himself apparently ended his life within the empire with his title recognized.

Jacob Svetoslav was a Rus' refugee who probably arrived in the Balkans around 1240. A Bulgarian ruler granted him land in the western ranges of the Balkan Mountains, where he gradually established a powerful regional lordship. Late in 1261 he married an unnamed daughter of Theodore II Laskaris, becoming a brother-in-law of John IV Laskaris and a relative by marriage of Tsar Constantine Tikh. His letter to the metropolitan of Kiev, whose exact date remains disputed, reveals a self-confident lord whose authority extended beyond Bulgaria’s borders. During the 1260s his political centre developed around Vidin and the northwestern territories.

Jacob Svetoslav shifted between Tarnovo and Hungary. In 1263 he sought Hungarian assistance against a Byzantine advance and probably received Vidin from the future King Stephen V. He later returned to the Bulgarian alliance and attacked the Banate of Severin, but in 1266 the Hungarians captured Vidin, Pleven, and Oryahovo and forced him to submit once again. By 1271 he was using a royal designation, and after Stephen V’s death in 1272 he acted as an independent claimant to supreme power. At Tarnovo he was symbolically adopted by the queen mother, but was killed by her soon afterward. His dominions probably included the Vidin region, lands south of the Balkan range, and parts of the Pirot and Tran districts, although their exact limits cannot be reconstructed. The origin of his despotic title is disputed. It was more probably conferred by the Nicaean court, perhaps by John IV Laskaris, than by Constantine Tikh.

George Terter, the future Tsar George Terter I, received the dignity of despot amid the turmoil surrounding the accession of Ivan Asen III in 1279. He was the most influential boyar in Tarnovo and married the new tsar’s sister after his first wife and his son Theodore Svetoslav had been sent into Byzantine territory. The sources do not establish with certainty who awarded the title. One account associates the initiative with Michael VIII Palaiologos, while another attributes it to Ivan Asen III. The Byzantine narrative first records a promise by the emperor and mentions actual investiture only after the marriage. A Constantinopolitan origin is therefore slightly more likely, but the question remains unresolved.

Despot Kuman is known only from the Boyana and Poganovo commemorative lists. He appears there in the formula “КОУМАНА ДЕСПОТА ЦР҃А” and is placed among figures of the late thirteenth century, close to George Terter I and Theodore Svetoslav. It is uncertain whether Kuman was his personal name or an indication of Cuman ethnicity. The commemorative nature of the texts makes the first possibility more likely, although the two meanings are not mutually exclusive. Other medieval men bearing the name are known, but none can be identified securely with the despot.

Eltimir, also known as Aldimir, was the brother of George Terter I and the uncle of Theodore Svetoslav. After his brother’s fall he probably lived in exile, perhaps among the Tatars. He returned after Tsar Smilets died in 1298, married the tsar’s daughter Marina, and became the principal supporter of the widowed queen. At about this time he probably received the wealthy and strategically important district of Kran. By 1298–1299 he was already one of Bulgaria’s leading figures and may have taken part in negotiations for a marriage between the queen and the Serbian king Stefan Uroš II Milutin, although he cannot securely be identified as the head of the Bulgarian embassy.

After Theodore Svetoslav’s accession, Eltimir initially supported his nephew. He repelled the attack of the sebastokrator Radoslav near Kran and handed captured Byzantine nobles over to the tsar. He later exploited his strong regional position, drew closer to Constantinople, and went to war with Theodore Svetoslav. The tsar recovered Yambol and Larde and ravaged his uncle’s lands; Eltimir probably died in the events of 1305. Inscriptions from the monastery at Pološko establish that his wife Marina took the monastic name Maria and that their son was John Dragushin, a first cousin of Stefan Dušan. Eltimir’s title undoubtedly came from a Bulgarian ruler. It was most probably conferred after his marriage by the underage son and successor of Smilets, but there is no direct testimony.

Michael Shishman, the future Tsar Michael III Shishman, was the son of Shishman, the ruler of Vidin, and a woman of the Asen dynasty who was a granddaughter of the sebastokrator Peter and Anna-Theodora. Probably born in the 1270s, he married Anna-Neda, a daughter of Stefan Uroš II Milutin, after 1292. By 1308 he ruled Vidin and a substantial political territory on both banks of the Danube. This power was not demonstrably subordinate to Serbia, although it maintained close relations with the Nemanjić dynasty. Following the death of George Terter II in 1323, the Bulgarian boyars elected Michael as tsar. A Venetian document of 1313 describes him as “Michael dispoti Bulgarie, dominus de Vigdino.” The wording permits an alternative interpretation in which the term means only “lord,” but the use of a word foreign to normal Latin terminology supports the conclusion that it denotes the title of despot. It was most probably conferred by Theodore Svetoslav.

Voisil was the youngest brother of Tsar Smilets and the sebastokrator Radoslav. After 1298 he left Bulgaria and entered Byzantine service. In the early fourteenth century he took part in the campaigns of Michael IX Palaiologos; in 1304 he commanded against Theodore Svetoslav at Skafida, and in subsequent years fought Catalans, Alans, and Tourkopouloi. After George Terter II’s death in 1322, Voisil returned as a claimant to the Bulgarian throne and established himself in the sub-Balkan region from Sliven to Kopsis. The towns accepted him not merely as the commander of a Byzantine army but as a member of a Bulgarian royal family. He promised loyalty to the emperor and was granted the title “despot of Moesia,” probably by Andronikos II Palaiologos. His alliance with Andronikos III soon broke down; the report that Voisil had died after eating poisonous mushrooms was probably a deception intended to free him from excessive Byzantine interference. He resisted Michael Shishman for more than a year and was again recorded as despot in 1328, when he led Byzantine troops in the capture of Ohrid.

Despot Michael is known solely from an inscription in the church at Dolna Kamenitsa, which identifies him as a despot and the son of a Tsar Michael. The monument dates to the first half of the fourteenth century but provides too little information for a secure identification. Various sons of rulers named Michael have been proposed. The most likely possibility is an otherwise unknown son of Michael III Shishman. If this identification is correct, he received the title from his father, but the conclusion remains hypothetical.

Sratsimir was the father of Tsar Ivan Alexander. One Byzantine passage mistakenly makes him the father of Michael Shishman, but another passage, the Bulgarian Synodikon, and information about his family allow the true relationship to be reconstructed. Around 1300 Sratsimir married kera Petrica, who later became the nun Theophana. Their children were Ivan Alexander, John Komnenos Asen, Michael, Elena, and Theodora. The family was connected with the Kran region, although it is not known when Sratsimir acquired authority there. He does not appear as a commander in the recorded campaigns, and his political activity remains obscure. He may have been alive after 1337 if Petrica entered a monastery only following his death. His dignity of despot probably came either from Theodore Svetoslav, a cousin of his wife, or from his brother-in-law Michael III Shishman.

Before becoming tsar in 1331, Ivan Alexander was despot and ruler of Lovech. A manuscript colophon calls him the “pious despot” and mentions him together with his son and Archbishop Symeon of Lovech, without naming the reigning tsar. This suggests an exceptionally strong regional position. Ivan Alexander fought at the battle of Velbazhd in 1330 and was married to Theodora, daughter of the Wallachian voivode Basarab I. The coup in Tarnovo in 1331 was organized by the logothete Philip and the protovestiarios Raksin, but the despot of Lovech himself clearly also acted to remove Ivan Stephen. His title was almost certainly conferred by his maternal uncle Michael III Shishman.

Despot Vladislav is attested only in the Boyana and Poganovo commemorative lists. The sequence of names permits the hypothesis that he was a brother of Sratsimir and thus an uncle of Ivan Alexander. The same lists associate him with Tsar Ivan Stephen, whose supporter he may have been during the brief reign of 1330–1331. If so, Vladislav could have received the title from that ruler. The hypothesis is complicated by Vladislav’s absence from the list of Sratsimir’s brothers in the Synodikon. It is unknown whether he was omitted or whether his name became confused with that of Radoslav.

Constantine is known from the opening miniature of Ivan Alexander’s London Gospels of 1355–1356. He is shown as a young man with rich clothing, long fair hair, and a crown, beside his wife kera Tamara, the tsar’s daughter. He was probably born around 1330–1335, lived at the court in Tarnovo, and received his title from his father-in-law in connection with the marriage. By 1371 Tamara was free to be married to the Ottoman ruler Murad I, so Constantine must have died earlier. Attempts to identify him with Constantine Dragaš or with the issuer of coins found in Macedonia are unsupported by reliable evidence.

Dobrotitsa belonged to the Bulgarian-Cuman Terter dynasty and was a younger brother of Balik and Theodore. Born no later than about 1320, he first appears during the Byzantine civil war of the 1340s. Balik sent him and Theodore with a thousand troops to assist the regent Anna of Savoy. In Constantinople Dobrotitsa married a daughter of the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos and was appointed commander of Byzantine forces. After an unsuccessful campaign against Selymbria, he remained in the empire and received Medeia. In 1347 he initially refused to recognize John VI Kantakouzenos, but later submitted and was received with honour. Before October 1360 he had returned to the northeastern Bulgarian lands, succeeded Balik, and acquired a fleet whose galleys attacked Genoese shipping.

As ruler of the land of Karvuna, Dobrotitsa governed from Kaliakra a territory broadly corresponding to Dobruja, later including Varna, Kozyak, Emona, and Drastar. In 1366–1370 he participated independently in the negotiations surrounding the campaign of Amadeus VI of Savoy and the release of Ivan Sratsimir from Hungarian control. Louis I the Great treated him, alongside Vladislav Vlaicu, as a mediator rather than a representative of Tarnovo. Dobrotitsa was demonstrably neither a subject nor a permanent ally of the Bulgarian tsar. During the 1370s his conflict with Genoa intensified, while his relations with Venice and John V Palaiologos grew closer. He supported his son-in-law, the despot Michael Palaiologos, in an attempt to obtain the throne of Trebizond from Alexios III Komnenos. The plan collapsed after the coup of Andronikos IV in 1376, and Michael was killed at Drastar by John Terter. Dobrotitsa remained an enemy of Genoa until his last recorded appearance in February 1385; by 1386 he was dead. His name later gave rise to the regional name Dobruja. The title of despot is securely attested by 1366 and was most probably conferred from Constantinople, although neither the date nor the particular emperor is known. His marriage, early service, the Greek language of his chancery and coinage, and his continuing involvement in imperial politics all point to the Byzantine connection.

John Terter was a son of Dobrotitsa and ruler of Drastar during the 1370s. The written sources call him only Terter and report that he killed his brother-in-law Michael Palaiologos at Drastar. His full name and title are reconstructed chiefly from coins found around Silistra and on the island of Păcuiul lui Soare. One group bears a Terter monogram and a double-headed eagle, while a unique silver coin has a Greek inscription containing the name. Other copper coins carry the word “despotou” and the monogram “Ιω Τ,” most convincingly read as “John Terter.” Some specimens were countermarked, leaving the sequence of the issues unclear. The production of both silver and copper coinage in his own name shows that the ruler of Drastar enjoyed much greater autonomy than an ordinary provincial governor.

John Terter was probably installed at Drastar by Dobrotitsa but soon came into conflict with him. In 1376 he appears to have supported Andronikos IV and the Genoese party; his killing of Michael Palaiologos destroyed his father’s plans for Trebizond. The most plausible identification is with Ivanko, who succeeded Dobrotitsa at Kaliakra and concluded a treaty with Genoa in 1387. The omission of both the title and the dynastic name from that treaty is not decisive, since Latin documents often omit Dobrotitsa’s title as well. It is not known when John lost Drastar: in 1388 the city was in the hands of the tsar at Tarnovo, and in 1391 it belonged to Mircea the Elder. His dignity of despot was probably conferred by Andronikos IV between 1376 and 1379, although this conclusion depends on the disputed attribution of the coins.

The careers of the Bulgarian despots show that the title alone did not prove subordination to the state that had conferred it. Alexios Slav, Jacob Svetoslav, Eltimir, Voisil, Dobrotitsa, and John Terter turned their high rank into a means of asserting regional or even quasi-sovereign authority. Others, such as Ivan Alexander and Michael Shishman, bore the title before reaching the Bulgarian throne, while Constantine received it as the tsar’s son-in-law. The last certain or probable Bulgarian holders appear in the fragmented principalities of the late fourteenth century. With the disappearance of these political centres, the dignity of despot ceased to function as an institution in medieval Bulgaria.