Nicholas Komnenos Angelos Doukas Bryennios Maliasenos ( el, Νικόλαος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος Δούκας Βρυέννιος Μαλιασηνός) was a

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...

nobleman and magnate active in the region of

Volos Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

the second half of the 13th century.

Life

Nicholas was the son of the first attested member of the Maliasenos family,

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given na ...

, a magnate in

who married Maria, the daughter of

Michael I Komnenos Doukas Michael I Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Comnenus Ducas ( el, Μιχαήλ Κομνηνός Δούκας, Mikhaēl Komnēnos Doukas), and in modern sources often recorded as Michael I Angelos, a name he never used, was the founder and first ruler ...

, ruler of

Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinrich ...

. Like his father, he is usually called with the surnames "

Komnenos Komnenos ( gr, Κομνηνός; Latinized Comnenus; plural Komnenoi or Comneni (Κομνηνοί, )) was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1081 to 1185, and later, as the Grand Komnenoi (Μεγαλοκομνην� ...

Maliasenos", but occasionally the surnames of two other major Byzantine aristocratic houses,

Doukas The House of Doukas, Latinized as Ducas ( el, Δούκας; feminine: Doukaina/Ducaena, Δούκαινα; plural: Doukai/Ducae, Δοῦκαι), from the Latin title ''dux'' ("leader", "general", Hellenized as 'ðouks'', is the name of a Byzant ...

and

Bryennios Bryennios or Bryennius ( el, Βρυέννιος), feminine form Bryennissa (Βρυέννισσα), was the name of a noble Byzantine family which rose to prominence in the 11th and 12th centuries, mostly as military commanders. The etymology of the ...

, are added to them. He is also frequently called

Angelos The House of Angelos (; gr, Ἄγγελος), feminine form Angelina (), plural Angeloi (), was a Byzantine Greek noble lineage which rose to prominence through the marriage of its founder, Constantine Angelos, with Theodora Komnene, the youn ...

, probably inherited via his mother. From his father, he inherited large estates in

. Initially under the Epirote rulers, Nicholas was confirmed in his possessions by the Byzantine emperor

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire ...

as well. Nicholas married Anna Komnene Doukaina Palaiologina Philanthropene, a niece of Michael VIII Palaiologos, in ca. 1255. They had at least one son, named John. This marriage, as well as the removal of the Ilarion Monastery at

Halmyros Almyros or Halmyros ( el, Αλμυρός, , , ) is a town and a municipality of the regional unit of Magnesia, region of Thessaly, Greece. It lies in the center of prosperous fertile plain known as 'Krokio Pedio', which is crossed by torrents. Al ...

from the purview of the Monastery of Makrinitissa, founded by Nicholas' father, by the

Despot of Epirus The despot of Epirus was the ruler of the Despotate of Epirus, one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. The name "Despotate of Epirus" and the title "despot of Epirus" are modern historiographica ...

Michael II Komnenos Doukas Michael II Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Comnenus Ducas ( el, Μιχαήλ Β΄ Κομνηνός Δούκας, ''Mikhaēl II Komnēnos Doukas''), often called Michael Angelos in narrative sources, was from 1230 until his death in 1266/68 the rule ...

, seems to indicate a shift in the family's allegiance to the then

Empire of Nicaea The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse ...

. It was therefore Michael VIII's brother, John Palaiologos, who restored the monastery's dependency at Halmyros and reconfirmed its tax immunity in 1259, which was reconfirmed in 1266 by

Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Nicephorus I Comnenus Ducas ( el, Νικηφόρος Κομνηνός Δούκας, Nikēphoros Komnēnos Doukas; – ) was ruler of Epirus from 1267/8 to his death in 1296/98. Life Born around 1240 ...

. Sometime in 1271–72, Nicholas and his wife founded the Nea Petra Monastery at Dryanoubaina in Thessaly. Originally a female convent, sometime between 1274 and 1277 it was converted into a male monastery. Nicholas gave both this and the Makrinitissa Monastery several other estates as dependencies, and even succeeded in receiving from Michael VIII the Latomou Monastery in

Thessalonica Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

as a dependency of his family's two foundations. Sometime between 1274 and 1276, the couple too became monks, assuming the

monastic name A religious name is a type of given name bestowed for a religious purposes, and which is generally used in such contexts. Christianity Catholic Church Baptismal name In baptism, Catholics are given a Christian name, which should not be "foreign ...

s of Joasaph and Anthousa respectively; Nicholas may later have taken a second monastic name, Neilos, on account of an inscription from the Makrinitissa Monastery that was later incorporated in the Church of the Virgin in

Makrinitsa Makrinitsa ( el, Μακρινίτσα), nicknamed "balcony of Mt. Pelion," is a village and a former community in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Volos, of which it is a municipal ...

. Nicholas was still alive in 1280, and possibly as late as 1285/86. After his death, he was buried at the Makrinitissa Monastery. After the latter's destruction, his gravestone, containing a poem, was incorporated in the masonry of the Athanasios Monastery at Makrinitsa.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maliasenos, Nicholas 13th-century births 13th-century deaths People of the Despotate of Epirus 13th-century Byzantine people 13th-century Byzantine monks Medieval Thessaly

Nicholas Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...

Founders of Christian monasteries