Doux of Thessalonica

Who he is

Title

Governor (doux) of Thessalonica

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

No governor is named in the sources reached for 1196-1203. The last famous holder is David Komnenos, who lost the city to the Normans in August 1185. The Life of St Theodora of Arta says John Petraliphas was sent by Isaac II to govern 'Thessaly and Macedonia'; his tenure is undated and may not have included the city.

Overlord

Alexios III

What it holds

• Thessalonica, its citadel and garrison
• the suburbs and the plain to the Axios
• Kalamaria, the coast toward Chalkidike, thick with monastic estates
• the Langadas basin and the roads north
• Chalkidike: Kassandra with the fort at its isthmus (Kassandreia), Sithonia and the land round Hierissos (the Holy Mountain itself governs itself)
• Pieria under Olympus, with Kitros (its attachment to this district is not pinned)
• the imperial mint at Thessalonica
• perhaps the 'province of the Vardar' (Provintia Vardarii) listed in 1204 and otherwise unattested, which may be the lower Vardar plain

How it was acquired

An office in the emperor's gift, held at his pleasure.

Allies and rivals

Works with the archbishop (Constantine Mesopotamites, a fallen minister now in his see), the city notables (archontes), the Athonite monasteries and their exemptions, and the Venetian merchants privileged by the chrysobull of November 1198. Neighbour to the north: Chrysos at Strumica and Prosek, at peace.

How things stand that morning

Byzantine and quiet; no fighting in the district that winter.

Wealth

Customs and market dues of Thessalonica and its October fair; the land tax of a rich grain and wine district, much of it exempt church and monastic land.

Military

The walls and citadel of Thessalonica, repaired after 1185 (extent not pinned); the fort at the isthmus of Kassandra; Hierissos. Garrison size not recorded.

Threats

• Bulgarian and Cuman raiding if the frontier breaks (Asen's army reached Serres in 1195-1196)
• Chrysos's Vlachs on the Strumica and Vardar roads
• The memory of 1185: a fleet from Sicily
• Venetian privileges eating into the customs

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. October 1200, around the feast of St Demetrius on 26 OctoberThe Demetria fair outside the walls.Depends on: Peace on the roads and the sea. Stopped by: War reaching the plain, or pirates closing the sea lanes.
2. 1201 (Varzos; some accounts say 1200-1201)Kamytzes, freed by Chrysos's ransom and embittered by the emperor's refusal to help him, rises with his son-in-law: Chrysos takes Pelagonia (Bitola) and Prilep, and Kamytzes goes over the Tempe pass into Thessaly (Choniates p. 293).Depends on: Kamytzes released alive; the emperor still refusing to repay the ransom or restore his property; Chrysos willing to break the 1197-1198 peace. Stopped by: The emperor repaying Chrysos or restoring Kamytzes; Kamytzes dying in captivity; Chrysos choosing the emperor's favour.

Places of note

• Kassandreia: Fort at the isthmus of Kassandra

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: No governor is named; the district's extent follows the old theme. The Partitio of 1204 leaves out Macedonia between the Maritsa and the Vardar because it went to Boniface, so it gives no check here.

On the map: A modern-unit approximation of the district; its northern edge toward Chrysos and toward Serres is not pinned.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
• The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
• The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
• The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.