History of Thessaly

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[edit] Ancient Thessaly

Map of ancient Thessaly
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Map of ancient Thessaly

Thessaly was home to an extensive Neolithic culture around 2500 BC. Mycenaean settlements have also been discovered, for example at the sites of Iolcos, Dimini and Sesklo (near Volos). Later, in ancient Greek times, the lowlands of Thessaly became the home of baronial families, such as the Aleuads of Larissa or the Scopads of Crannon. These baronial families organized a federation across the Thessaly region, later went on to control the Amphictyonic League in northern Greece. The Thessalians were renowned for their cavalry.

During the Greco-Persian Wars the Aleuads joined the Persians. In the 4th century BC Thessaly became dependent on Macedon and many served as vassals. In 148 BC the Romans formally incorporated Thessaly into the province of Macedonia, but in AD 300 Thessaly was made a separate province with its capital at Larissa. It remained as a part of the east Roman empire until the 13th century, when large portions of it were controlled by Vlach herdsmen (see Great Walachia).

[edit] Thessaly in the Middle Ages

[edit] 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.

[edit] Rulers of Thessaly

(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)

[edit] 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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