Vonko

Vonko ^[a] (fl. 1400-1401) was a "Serb-Albanian-Bulgarian-Vlach" who conquered Arta from the Shpata family in 1400, holding it until late 1401, when the Shpatas regained the town.

Life

Not much is known of him. ^[1] In a Greek monastic chronicle, the Chronicle of Proclus and Comnenus ^[2] (also known as the Chronicle of Ioannina ^[1] ) from the Panteleimon monastery at Ioannina, ^{[3] [4]} the last inclusion mentions: "October 29, on Wednesday (1400), Despot Shpatas enters Eternity (dies). Immediately afterwards, his brother Skurra holds Arta. After some days, the Serb-Albanian-Bulgarian-Vlach ^[b] Bokoes (Vonko) attacked and expelled Skurra, and started to round up all the elders and imprisoned them in the fort, and he destroyed their possessions." ^[5] He treated the citizens badly, and they called on the Republic of Venice for help. ^[1]

By the end of 1401, Vonko had been driven out from Arta. Skurra did not retain the town, instead his nephew Muriq Shpata took over Arta and Skurra took over Angelokastron. ^[6] No more is mentioned of him. ^[1]

G. Schiro, who studied the genealogy of Shpata, assumed that the name (Bokoes in the original text) is a variant of Bua, based on linguistic data and the fact that Bua initially had the form of Buchia. ^[7]

Annotations

1. ^
   Name: His name appears in the "Chronicle of Ioannina" as Μποκόης (Bokoes) and has been transliterated as Vonko, ^{[5] [3] [4]} or Vango, ^{[6] [2]}
or Bokoi ^[8] in other languages.
2. ^
   The wide designation of his ethnicity (Serv-Alvanito-Voulgaro-Vlahos) gives the notion that there was a known symbiosis in that region in the 14th century, comparable with that of Macedonia. ^[5]

Notes

1. Ellis, p. 151
2. Vakalopoulos, p. 154
3. Banač, p. 328
4. Stoianovich, p. 132
5. Šufflay 1925 , pp. 69–70
6. Fine 1994 , pp. 355–356
7. Schiró Giuseppe, La genealogia degli Spata tra il XIV e XV sec. e due Bua sconosciouti, Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, Universita di Roma, Roma, 1971-1972, pp. 84-85.
8. Schiró G. p. 71

References

• Šufflay, Milan (1925). Srbi i Arbanasi (in Croatian).
• Ivo Banač, The national question in Yugoslavia: origins, history, politics
• Traian Stoianovich, Balkan worlds: the first and last Europe
• Apostolos Euangelou Vakalopoulos,Origins of the Greek nation: the Byzantine period, 1204-1461
• Steven G. Ellis, Lud'a Klusáková, Imagining frontiers, contesting identities
• Fine, John V. (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans : a Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. hdl:2027/heb.04995. ISBN   978-0-472-08260-5. OCLC   872155187.

Preceded by Sgouros Spata	Ruler of Arta 1400–1401	Succeeded by Maurice Spata