Sgouros Spata

Sgouros Spata^[a] (fl. 1399—d. 1403) was the Lord of Arta briefly in 1400, and the Lord of Angelokastron from 1401 until his death in 1403, during warfare in a civil war.

Life

Shortly before John Spata died on 29 October (1399, according to Nicol;^[1] 1400 according to others), he appointed his brother, Sgouros, ruler of Naupactus, as his successor as the despot of Arta. A few days after Sgouros took over Arta, however, the town was captured by the adventurer Vonko.^[2] While Sgouros fled to Angelokastron, a short time after, possibly as early as December 1399 (or by the end of 1401^[3]), Maurice Spata, his grandnephew, managed to evict Vonko from Arta and took over the governance of the city himself, while Sgouros thus took over governance of Angelokastron.^[4][1][3]

In 1402/3, Maurice came to Sgouros' aid when the latter was besieged at Angelokastron by the forces of Carlo I Tocco. The attack, under Carlo's general Galasso Peccatore, was repulsed, but Sgouros died soon after, from wounds suffered in the war,^[5] leaving his possessions to his son Paul Spata.^[6]

Aftermath

Sgouros was succeeded by his son Paul, who became an Ottoman vassal and was aided with a contingent that was defeated by Tocco in 1406, after the latter had turned on the offensive, Angelokastron was ceded to the Turks and Paul retired to Naupaktos, however he sold it in 1407 to the Republic of Venice. Because of Paul's withdrawal, Maurice Spata and Tocco divided Aetolia and Acarnania between themselves. In 1408, Tocco holds Angelokastron.^[7]

Annotations

1. ^ His name according to a contemporary fresco in the church of Panagia Paregoritissa in Arta was Sgouros Spatas (СΓΟΥΡΟС СΠΑΤΑС),^[8] while it is mostly spelled Sgouros Spata in modern sources. His given name has also been spelled Zgur.

References

1. Nicol 2010, pp. 164, 169.
2. According to a Greek monastic chronicle from the Panteleimon monastery at Ioannina, "October 29, on Wednesday (1400), Despot Spatas enters Eternity (dies). Immediately afterwards, his brother Sgouros holds Arta. After some days, the Serb-Albanian-Bulgarian-Vlach Vonko attacked and expelled Sgouros, and started to round up all the chieftains/elders and imprisoned them in the fort, and he destroyed their possessions." see Banac 1988, p. 328; Stoianovich 1994, p. 132; Šufflay 1925, pp. 69-70
3. Fine 1994, pp. 355–356.
4. PLP 1991, 26524. Σπάτας Μουρίκης.
5. Fine 1994, p. 356.
6. Nicol 2010, p. 170.
7. Fine (1994), pp. 355-356
8. Barbara Ν. Papadopoulou. "Επιτύμβια παράσταση στο ναό της Παναγίας Παρηγορήτισσας στην Άρτα" (PDF).

Sources

• Ivo Banac (1988). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9493-1.
• Traian Stoianovich (1 September 1994). Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-3851-9.
• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5.
• Nicol, Donald MacGillivray (2010). The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-13089-9.
• Milan Šufflay, Srbi i Arbanasi (1925)