Michael Doukas Glabas Tarchaneiotes or Michael Tarchaneiotes Glabas (Greek: Μιχαὴλ Δοῦκας Γλαβᾶς Ταρχανειώτης; born ca. 1235, died after 1304) was a notable Byzantine aristocrat and general.
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He is first mentioned in ca. 1260, when he was assigned to capture the city of Mesembria on the Black Sea coast from the deposed Bulgarian tsar Mitso Asen.[1] In 1263 and 1278 he led successful campaigns against the Bulgarians, launched a raid against Serbia with some 4,000 Cumans in 1282, and fought against the Angevins in Albania ca. 1284.[1][2] At the same time, he rose in the imperial hierarchy, occupying progressively higher titles: from primmikerios of the court (33rd in the hierarchy), he became megas papias (22nd), pinkernes (15th), megas konostaulos (12th) and finally, sometime between 1297 and 1304, protostrator (8th, in essence the commander of the army).[1][3][4]
In 1297/1298, Glabas (still a megas konostaulos) was named as the governor of the western part of the Empire, with Thessalonica as his seat, and sent to deal with the Serbs, who had been periodically attacking Byzantine holdings in Macedonia and Albania for over a decade. Despite his great military experience and his disposing of a relatively strong army, Glabas was unable to make any headway as the Serbs relied on guerrilla tactics and refused a pitched battle. Consequently he advised Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328) to conclude a peace agreement with Stephen Uroš II.[1][5][6]
In 1304, Glabas was dispatched to counter a Bulgarian invasion under Tsar Theodore Svetoslav, which took several forts and cities along the Balkan Mountains and the Black Sea coast. Glabas had some success: according to a panegyric by the court poet Manuel Philes he retook Roussokastron and Mesembria, rebuilt Anchialos and forced the Bulgarians to withdraw behind the Balkans. At this juncture however he fell ill and returned to Constantinople, while the co-emperor Michael IX Palaiologos (r. 1294–1320) assumed command.[7]
It is not known when Glabas died; before his death, he became a monk, and along with his wife Maria restored the Pammakaristos Church in Constantinople, where Glabas was also buried in a small chapel. The church was possibly decorated with a fresco cycle celebrating his military exploits. In 1303 they had also sponsored the restoration of a chapel to St. Euthymius in the Church of St. Demetrius in Thessalonica.[8] Glabas was remembered by his contemporaries as an excellent soldier: the historian Nikephoros Gregoras claims that his military experience made the other generals "look like children".[4] Philes also records that he had written a now lost treatise on "various military topics", one of the last attested examples in the long tradition of Byzantine military manuals.[9]
Glabas married Maria Doukaina Komnene Branaina Palaiologina, of unknown ancestry. After his death she became a nun with the name Martha.[1][10] Together they had two daughters:[10]