Medieval Thessalonica

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Thessalonica in the Middle Ages

[edit] Political History

After the Fourth Crusade Thessalonica (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη, Thessalonikē) became the capital of the Kingdom of Thessalonica created for Boniface of Montferrat. In 1224 the city was taken by Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epirus, whose family maintained itself in control until 1246. In that year Thessalonica was annexed to the Empire of Nicaea and thus returned under Byzantine rule. Nevertheless, the city and its environs became a special jurisdiction entrusted to the rule of various members of the imperial house from 1376 until its cession to Venice in 1423. During the intervening period Thessalonica successfully withstood the attacks of the Catalan Company in 1308 and of Stefan Uroš IV Dušan in 1334. In the period 1342–1349 Thessalonica was a virtually independent commune in the hands of the Zealots. The city fell to the Turks in 1387 after an attack begun in 1383. It was recovered for the Byzantine Empire by the terms of the treaty signed with the Ottoman Empire in 1402. Unable to hold Thessalonica against the Turks, its governor Andronikos Palaiologos ceded it to Venice in 1423, but the Venetians were unable to prevent its fall to the Turks in 1430.

[edit] Rulers of Thessalonica

(Byzantine rule 1246–1387)

(Ottoman rule 1387–1403, then Byzantine rule 1403–1423)

(Venetian rule 1423–1430, then Ottoman rule from 1430)

[edit] References

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
  • John V.A. Fine Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1987.
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