Titulature and forms of address of the despot

Within the court hierarchy, the despot stood at the head of the dignitaries and was therefore entitled to distinctive titles and forms of address. “Self-reference” means the expressions by which the holder of the dignity designated his own authority in a document, such as „господьство ми“ (“my lordship”). No Bulgarian account of the associated ceremonial survives, so the principal comparisons must be drawn from Byzantium. Early Byzantine despots usually signed simply as „N. ὁ δεσπότης“, whereas in the fifteenth century the despots of the Morea employed much more solemn styles incorporating „ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ“, the epithet „εὐσεβής“, the family name Palaiologos, and sometimes „ὁ Πορφυρογέννητος“, “the Porphyrogennetos” or “Born in the Purple.” The treatise of Pseudo-Kodinos describes the Byzantine order in detail, but the absence of Bulgarian court ordinances prevents its direct application to Tarnovo. The chancery manual known as the Ekthesis Nea contains forms such as „δέσποτά μου“ and „ἡ βασιλεία σου“, as well as the more ceremonial „πανευτυχέστατε δέσποτά μου“. A related Slavonic text preserved in manuscript no. 31 of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences gives the equivalents „въсепарѡчнꙑи деспотъ“ and „въблагодарочитѡмъ деспотѹ“. These are valuable linguistic parallels, but they do not by themselves establish how ceremonial at the Bulgarian court was conducted.

The fullest Slavonic comparative material comes from Serbian despots. Two different historical settings must be distinguished: in the fourteenth century the dignity was conferred by Serbian tsars, while in the fifteenth century it was borne by the rulers of Serbia themselves after being granted from Constantinople. Charters survive from the earlier period for John Uglješa and John Dragaš. In them the Christian invocation is expanded into the style „въ христа бога благовѣрни деспотъ“, which resembles sovereign titulature more closely than the usual Byzantine style of a despot. The word „благовѣрни“ corresponds to the Greek „πιστός“, an epithet normally reserved for an emperor or tsar. John Uglješa went furthest: in February 1369 he signed in Greek as „Ἰωάννης ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ πιστὸς δεσπότης καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ ὁ Οὐγκλέσης“. In Byzantium, combining the dignity of despot with the title autokrator would have contradicted the court hierarchy, but in the Serbian context the latter term primarily expressed political independence. In his first charter as despot, Uglješa used „деспотско ми“ (“my despotic authority”), but later adopted „царство ми“ and the Greek „ἡ βασιλεία μου“, formulas of sovereign majesty. John Dragaš employed both „царство ми“ and „господство ми“ (“my lordship”). In the fifteenth century, sovereign styles such as „господинь срьблѥмь“, “lord of the Serbs,” or lord of the Serbian lands and the coast were added to the title. Consequently, references to faithful rule and divine grace applied to the sovereign rather than necessarily to his dignity as despot. Stefan Lazarević referred to himself with both „царство ми“ and „господство ми“, whereas Đurađ Branković preferred only the latter. These later examples cannot be used as a direct model for Bulgaria because they reflect the titulature of independent Serbian rulers.

The Bulgarian evidence is too limited to reconstruct a complete style or trace its development. The sigillion—an act authenticated by a seal—issued by Alexios Slav in 1220 is not reliable evidence for Bulgarian chancery practice. At that time his territories lay outside the Bulgarian state, and the document was written in Greek according to Byzantine models. More direct testimony is provided by Jacob Svetoslav’s letter to the metropolitan of Kyiv. His full titulature is not preserved, but he refers to himself with the formula „господьство ми“, “my lordship.” The Kyiv copy abbreviates this as „гъство ми“, while two copies in the Kormchaia, a Slavonic collection of canon law, give „глъство ми“. The expression functions as a Slavonic equivalent of the Greek „δεσποτά μου“. It probably developed first in Bulgaria and subsequently entered the Serbian documentary tradition. Bulgarian despots may also have used „царство ми“, corresponding to „ἡ βασιλεία μου“, but there is no direct evidence for this. The other important domestic witness is a colophon in the Lovcha Miscellany, which calls Alexander „деспотъ“ and includes the epithet „благочѣстникии“. This renders the Greek „εὐσεβής“, meaning “pious.” Although the colophon is not an official act, it bears witness to a Bulgarian Slavonic version of Byzantine titulature. Taken together, the two sources preserve isolated elements but do not reveal the complete protocol, the order of the titles, the associated court rites, or the precise time when these formulas disappeared.