Late Medieval Central Greece in Turmoil: Thessaly, Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries C.E.

Abstract

Thessaly’s importance in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, within the framework of the study of medieval Greek history in the final phase of the later Byzantine period (1204–1461/1479), warrants its bibliographical promotion, so to speak, as well as its placement alongside the other Byzantine exiled states of the post-1204 period, that is, those of the Lascarids of Nicaea (1204–1261), the Angeli-Ducae-Comneni of Ep(e)irus (1204/1205–1348/1449/1479), the Grand Comneni of Trebizond (1204–1461), as well as the Cantacuzeni and the Palaeologi of the later Despotate of the Morea/Mystras (1262/1348–1460/1461), while the early (thirteenth-century) history of this Thessalian Byzantine “state” should be studied on a parallel basis with that of the Latin Empire of Constantinople (“Romania”: 1204–1261) and the other major by-product of the Fourth Crusade, that is, the Latin/Lombard Kingdom of Thessalonica (1204/1207–1224). The article covers the period from C.E. 1204/1212–1213 to C.E. ca. 1470, with particular emphasis from the years 1212 or 1213/1222 onward, when the Thessalian area was initially incorporated in the rising Epeirote state (principality), until the final phases of the Ottoman annexation of the area, between ca. 1454 to ca. 1470.